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PROPHETHOOD IN ISLAM
Prophethood is not unknown to heavenly revealed religions, such as
Judaism and Christianity. In Islam, however, it has a special status
and significance. According to Islam, Allah created man for a noble
purpose: to worship Him and lead a virtuous life based on His teachings
and guidance. How man would know his role and the purpose of his
existence unless he received clear and practical instructions of what
Allah wants him to do? Here comes the need for prophethood. Thus Allah
had chosen from every nation a prophet or more to convey His Message to
people.
One might ask: How were the prophets chosen and who were entitled to
this great honor? Prophethood is Allah's blessing and favor that He may
bestow on whom He wills. However, from surveying the various messengers
throughout history, three features of a prophet may be recognized:
1. He is the best in his community morally and intellectually. This is
necessary because the prophet's life serves as a model for his
followers. His personality should attract people to accept his message
rather than drive them away by his imperfect character. After receiving
the message he is infallible. That is, he would not commit any sin. He
might do some minor mistakes which are usually corrected by revelation.
2. He is supported by miracles to prove that he is not an impostor.
Those miracle are granted by the power and permission of God and are
usually in the field in which his people excel and are recognized as
superiors. We might illustrate this by quoting the major world
religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Moses' contemporaries were
excellent in magic. So his major miracle was to defeat the best
magicians of Egypt of his days. Jesus's contemporaries were recognized
as skillful physicians. Therefore his miracles were to raise the dead
and cure the incurable diseases. The Arabs, the contemporaries of the
prophet Muhammad, were known for their eloquence and magnificent
poetry. So prophet Muhammad's major miracle was the Quran, the
equivalent of which the whole legion of the Arab poets and orators
could not produce despite the repeated challenge from the Quran itself.
Again Muhammad's miracle has something special about it. All previous
miracles were limited by time and place, i.e., they were shown to
specific people at a specific time. Not so the miracle of Muhammad -
the Quran. It is a universal and everlasting miracle. Previous
generations witnessed it and future generations will witness its
miraculous nature in term of its style, content and spiritual
uplifting. These still can be tested and will thereby prove the divine
origin of the Quran.
3. Every prophet states clearly that what he receives is not of his own
but from God for the well-being of mankind, He also confirms what was
revealed before him and what may be revealed after him. A prophet does
this to show that he is simply convey the message which is entrusted to
him by the One True God of all people in all ages. So the message is
one in essence and for the same purpose. Therefore, it should not
deviate from what was revealed before him or what might come after him.
Prophets are necessary for conveying God's instructions and guidance to
mankind. We have no way of knowing why were we created? What will
happen to us after death? Is there any life after death? Are we
accountable for our actions? In other words, is there any reward or
punishment for our deeds in this life? These and so many other
questions about God, ages, paradise, hell etc., can not be answered
without direct revelation from the Creator and Knower of the unseen.
Those answers must be authentic and just be brought by individuals whom
we trust and respect. That is why, messengers are the select of their
societies in terms of moral conducts and intellectual abilities.
Hence the slanderous Biblical stories about some of the great prophets
are not accepted by Muslims. As for example, when Lot is reported to
have committed fornication while drunk, with his daughters, or that
David sent one of his leaders to death to marry his wife. Prophets to
Muslims are greater than what these stories indicate. These stories can
not be true from the Islamic point of view. The prophets are also
miraculously supported by God and instructed by Him to affirm the
continuity of the message. The content of the prophets' message to
mankind can be summarized as follows:
a. Clear concept about God: his attributes, His creation, what should
and should not be ascribed to Him.
b. Clear idea about the unseen world, the angels, jinn (spirits),
Paradise and Hell.
c. Why has God created us? What does He want from us and what the
reward or punishment for obeying or disobeying Him?
d. How to run our societies according to His will? That is, clear
instructions and laws that, when applied correctly and honestly, will
result into a happy and ideal society.
It is clear from the above discussion that there is no substitute for
prophets. Even now a days with the advancement of science, the only
authentic source of information about the supernatural world is
revelation. Guidance can not be obtained neither from science nor from
mystic experience. The first is too materialistic and too limited; the
second is to subjective and frequently too misleading. Now one might
ask:
How many prophets had God sent to humanity? We do not know for sure.
Some Muslim scholars have suggested 240 thousand prophets. We are only
sure of what is clearly mentioned in the Quran, that is , God has sent
a messenger (or more) to every nation. That is because it is one of
God' principles that He will never call a people to account unless He
has made clear to them what to do and what not to do. The Quran
mentions the names of 25 prophets and indicates that there have been
others who were not mentioned to the prophet Muhammad. These 25 include
Noah, the man of the Ark, Abraham, Moses, Jesus and Muhammad. These
five are the greatest among God's messengers. They are called 'the
resolute' prophets.
An outstanding aspect of the Islamic belief in Prophethood is that
Muslims believe in and respect all the messengers of God with no
exception. Since all the prophets came from the same One God, for the
same purpose-to lead mankind to God - belief in them all is essential
and logical; accepting some and rejecting others has to be based on
misconceptions of the prophets's role or on racial bias. The Muslims
are the only people in the world who consider the belief in all the
prophets of God and article of faith. Thus the Jews reject Jesus Christ
and Muhammad (peace be upon them); the Christians reject Muhammad
(PBUH) and in reality reject Moses because they do not abide by his
laws. The Muslims accept them all as messengers of God who brought
guidance to mankind. However, the revelation which those prophets
brought from God had been tampered with in one way or the other. The
belief in all the messengers of God is enjoined on Muslims by the Quran:
Say
(O Muslims) : we believe in Allah and that which is revealed to us and
that which was revealed to Abraham and Ismail, and Isaac and Jacob, and
their children, and that which Moses and Jesus received and that the
prophets received from their Lord. We make no distinction between any
of them and unto Him we have surrendered. (2:136)
The Quran continues in the following verses to instruct the Muslims
that this is the true and impartial belief. If other nations believe in
the same, they are following the right track. If they do not, they must
be following their own whims and biases and God will take care of them.
Thus we read:
And
if they believe in what you believe, then are they rightly guided. But
if they turn away, then they are in disunity, and Allah will suffice
you against them. He is the Hearer, the Knower. This is God's religion
and Who is better than God in religion? (2:137-38)
There are, at least, two important points related to prophethood that
need to be clarified. These points concern the roles of Jesus and
Muhammad as prophets who are usually misunderstood.
The Quranic account of Jesus emphatically rejects the concept of his
'Divinity' and 'Divine Sonship' and presents him as one of the great
prophets of God. The Quran makes it clear that the birth of Jesus
without a father does not make him son of God and mentions in this
respect Adam who was created by God without a father and mother:
Truly
the likeness of Jesus, in God's sight, is as Adam's's likeness; He
created him of dust, then said He unto him, "Be", and he was. (3:59)
Like other prophets Jesus also performed miracles. For example, he
raised the dead and cured the blind and the lepers, but while showing
these miracles he always made it clear that it was all from God.
Actually the mis-conceptions about the personality and mission of Jesus
found a way among his followers because the Divine message that he
preached was not recorded during his presence in the world, rather it
was recorded after a lapse of about hundred years. According to the
Quran he was sent to the children of Israel; he confirmed the validity
of the Torah which was revealed to Moses and he also brought the glad
tidings of a final messenger after him.
And
when Jesus son of Mary said, 'children of Israel, I am indeed the
Messenger to you, confirming the Torah that is before me, and giving
good tidings of a Messenger who shall come after me, whose name shall be the praised
one.(61:6)
(The underlined portion is the translation of Ahmad which is prophet
Muhammad's name).
However, the majority of the Jews rejected his ministry. They plotted
against his life and in their opinion crucified him. But the Quran
refutes this opinion and says that they neither killed him nor
crucified him, rather he was raised up to God. There is a verse in the
Quran, which implies that Jesus will come back and all the Christians
and Jews will believe in him before he dies. This is also supported by
authentic sayings of the prophet Muhammad (PBUH).
The last prophet of God, Muhammad, was born in Arabia in the sixth
century C.E. Up to the age of forty, people of Makkah knew him only as
a man of excellent character and cultured manners and called him
AL-AMEEN (the trustworthy). He also did not know that he was soon to be
made a prophet and receiver of revelation from God. He called the
idolaters of Makkah to worship the only one God and accept him as His
prophet. The revelation that he received was preserved in his life time
in the memory of his companions and was also recorded on pieces of pam
leaves, leather etc. Thus the Quran that is found today is the same
that was revealed to him, not a syllable of it has been altered as God
Himself has guaranteed its preservation. This Quran claims to be the
book of guidance for whole humanity for all times, and mentions
Muhammad as the last prophet of God.
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Source:
WAMY SERIES On Islam
World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY)
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