Bismillah: in the name of Allah, the Most Merciful
Muslims believe in God’s prophets, as the fourth principle of
Iman. Islamic etiquette requires all prophets to be respected. Hence, at the mention of Prophets named in the Quran–including
Noah, Abraham, Moses and Jesus–Muslims are taught to ask God to shower His blessings and peace upon them.
In Islam, a prophet is a messenger chosen by God to convey His message and
show how His guidance is implemented in human life. A person cannot decide to be a prophet, but rather has been created for
this role before birth.
Prophets share essential characteristics: trustworthiness, truthfulness
and devotion, conscious awareness of their mission to communicate God’s message, justness, purity from sin, humility
and wisdom, and security from being dismissed from prophethood. As human beings, prophets may err in judgement, yet are protected
from deliberate disobedience. This protection ensures that their behaviour will not mislead their followers.
Islamic teachings differ from Biblical accounts that attribute sinful behaviour
to prophets. For example, the Quran describes Adam as a prophet temporarily exiled from the Divine presence because of human
forgetfulness, not deliberate sin. The Quran depicts David as both a king and righteous prophet; Biblical accounts describing
murder and adultery are seen as later innovations.
Other differences between prophetic accounts in the Bible and the Quran
include the story of Abraham, who according to the Quran attempted to sacrifice his firstborn son Ishmael (an event commemorated
in the Hajj ritual), and the Islamic belief in Jesus as a prophet who taught his followers not to pray to himself, but to
pray to his Lord, the One God.
According to Islam, God has promised guidance to every community in human
history. Hence He has sent 124,000 prophets, twenty-five of whom have been named in the Quran.
As the concept of prophets is intertwined with the Islamic sense of history,
Muslims understand human history to be divided into two phases. The first phase has lasted from the time of Prophet Adam until
and including the time of Prophet Muhammad; within this phase, God has periodically revived degenerating religious and social
conditions by sending a new prophet to restate His message.
For the second historical period, following the final prophet, Muhammad
(peace be upon him), guidance is preserved in the Quran, the protected scripture. Although the cycles of religious and societal
degeneration continue, in this phase faith is not renewed through new prophets, but by the revival of Quranic guidance through
authentic spiritual teachers.
The Islamic view of prophetic history has two implications. The first is
that in order to be faithful to God’s message, a believer must accept all of the prophets, without discriminating between
them. The second is that although Muslims may find common values with other groups branching off of Islam, any group that
bases itself on a prophet after Islam’s final prophet and protected scripture is considered a completely separate, distinct
religion, not a continuation of the Islamic cycle of Prophetic messengers.
For Muslims, God has sent one essential message, repeated by each of God’s
prophets: believe in One God, prepare for the Day of Judgement, give to those in need, be constant in prayer, true to one’s
promises, and patient in misfortune. And although holy days and specific ritual details have varied, worship, prayer and fasting
have been integral parts of the lives and religious practice of all of the prophets, may God’s blessing and peace be
on them, and remain a continuing example of righteous life for those who choose to follow them.
Barbara (Masumah) Helms
(Courtesy of the Standard-Freeholder, November 4, 2006)
