Who are the prophets?

8 min read

You already know the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, as the messenger who brought you the Quran. But he was not the first. Long before him, Allah (the Arabic word for God, the One God) sent many prophets to guide people back to Him. In this step you will meet some of them, and see why a Muslim loves every one of them.

Believing in all of them

Belief in Allah's messengers is one of the pillars of faith, and a Muslim does not pick and choose among them. The Quran describes the believers like this:

The Messenger has believed in what was revealed to him from his Lord, and [so have] the believers. All of them have believed in Allah and His angels and His books and His messengers, [saying], "We make no distinction between any of His messengers."
Quran 2:285 (Saheeh International translation)

We make no distinction means that believers do not accept some messengers and reject others. They accept all of them as true messengers of Allah. Allah also tells the believers to believe in the scriptures He sent before the Quran:

O you who have believed, believe in Allah and His Messenger and the Book that He sent down upon His Messenger and the Scripture which He sent down before.
Quran 4:136 (Saheeh International translation)

So when you love and honor Musa (Moses) or Isa (Jesus), peace be upon them, you are not stepping outside Islam. You are practicing it.

Prophets and messengers

Arabic has two words here. A nabi is a prophet, and a rasul is a messenger. The Quran uses both, and describes Musa with both at once: "he was a messenger and a prophet" (Quran 19:51). Scholars commonly explain that every messenger is also a prophet, but not every prophet is a messenger. You do not need to sort them into lists. What matters is that you believe in them and honor them all.

How many were there? More than we know. Allah said to the Prophet Muhammad:

And We have already sent messengers before you. Among them are those [whose stories] We have related to you, and among them are those [whose stories] We have not related to you.
Quran 40:78 (Saheeh International translation)

The prophets named in the Quran

Scholars commonly count 25 prophets and messengers mentioned by name in the Quran. Here they are, with a place where each one is named:

In one passage, Allah names eighteen of them together: Ibrahim (Abraham), Ishaq (Isaac), Yaqub (Jacob), Nuh (Noah), Dawud (David), Sulayman (Solomon), Ayyub (Job), Yusuf (Joseph), Musa (Moses), Harun (Aaron), Zakariya (Zechariah), Yahya (John), Isa (Jesus), Ilyas (Elias), Ismail (Ishmael), Al-Yasa (Elisha), Yunus (Jonah), and Lut (Lot). Then He says of them: "Those are the ones to whom We gave the Scripture and authority and prophethood" (Quran 6:83-89).
Adam, the first human. The Quran says that Allah chose him (Quran 3:33), and the Prophet Muhammad confirmed that Adam was a prophet.
Idris, described as "a man of truth and a prophet" (Quran 19:56).
Hud, Salih, and Shu'ayb, each sent to his own people with the same words: "O my people, worship Allah; you have no deity other than Him" (Quran 7:65, 7:73, 7:85).
Dhul-Kifl, praised together with Ismail and Idris as being "of the patient" (Quran 21:85). Scholars have discussed whether he was a prophet or a righteous man; either way, the Quran honors him.
Muhammad, "the Messenger of Allah and last of the prophets" (Quran 33:40).

One message

The prophets lived in different lands and different times, but they all called people to the same thing:

And We sent not before you any messenger except that We revealed to him that, "There is no deity except Me, so worship Me."
Quran 21:25 (Saheeh International translation)

The details of their laws could differ. Allah says: "To each of you We prescribed a law and a method" (Quran 5:48). But the core never changed: worship Allah alone. The Prophet Muhammad described this with a picture from family life:

The prophets are paternal brothers; their mothers are different, but their religion is one.
Sahih al-Bukhari 3443 and Sahih Muslim 2365

Brothers who share a father but have different mothers still share what matters most. In the same way, the prophets share one religion, the worship of Allah alone, even though the details of their laws were different.

What was the core message of every prophet?

The last of the prophets

The line of prophets ended with the Prophet Muhammad:

Muhammad is not the father of [any] one of your men, but [he is] the Messenger of Allah and last of the prophets.
Quran 33:40 (Saheeh International translation)

Scholars of tafsir (explanation of the Quran) explain that there is no prophet after him until the Day of Judgment. His message is not for one nation only: Allah sent him to all people (Quran 34:28). That is why, today, following him is how you follow all the prophets. He brought the same message they brought, in its final form.

Remember

Every prophet taught the same truth: worship Allah alone. A Muslim believes in all of them, loves all of them, and follows the last of them, the Prophet Muhammad.

In the next three lessons you will meet three of these prophets more closely: Ibrahim, Musa, and Isa, peace be upon them.

Sources

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Up next: Ibrahim: the friend of Allah

Step 3: The prophets before him, 8 min

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