Prophets in Islam

Allah's Prophets

Allah's prophets are His messengers to humanity. Their essence is human, and they are the purest of human beings. Allah sent each prophet as a warner to his community, until the advent of the final prophet, Muhammad (pbuh), who came as a mercy to all of Allah's creatures. Allah the Almighty declared : We have sent you (O Muhammad) not but as a mercy for the Alamin (mankind, jinn and all that exists). (Ch 21:107)

Indeed, if it had not been for Muhammad (pbuh), we would not have known the true stories of the prophets as they took place. This is because their stories were distorted and corrupted before Muhammad's (pbuh) mission. The resulting versions did not respect the dignity and infallibility of the prophets. For example, the corrupt books of the Jews narrate a story of a prophet who drank alcohol and commited adultery with his own daughter; of a prophet who sent the commander of his army to war in order to ensare the commander;s wife; of a prophet who worshipped idols after marrying a pretty young idol worshipper, they said he prefered to please her by worshipping her idol than to please his Creator. All the time you read these books you feel that youa re confronting a false, confused, and misguided mentality which lies about Allah and His prophets.

If you leave the corrupt books of the Jews for those of the Christians, you will find a contrary attitude which is almost a reaction to the first. The Christians glorified their prophet Jesus (pbuh) to the degree that most of the sects call him the son of Allah. Allah is high above that!

The true image of the prophets was lost by either degrading or over glorifying them. Were it not for the Quran, we would not have known their true nature.

The prophets and messengers have different levels and degrees. Allah the Almighty stated: Those messengers! We preferred some to others; to some of them Allah spoke (directly); others he raised to degrees (of honor). (Ch 2:253)

Despite the difference in degrees of prophets in the sight of Allah the Exalted, the Muslims are commanded to respect them all and not to discriminate among them.

Allah the Exalted said: Each one of the believers believes in Allah, His Angels, His Books, and His Messengers. They say, "We make no distinction between one another of His Messengers." and they say, "We hear nd we obey." We seek Your forgiveness, our Lord and to You is the return of all." (Ch 2:285)