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Prophethood
• Prophethood is not unknown to heavenly revealed religions, such as Judaism and Christianity. In
Islam, however, it has a special status and significance.
• Risalah is the Arabic word for message. It refers to 'prophethood' and represents the various ways
Allah communicates with humanity.
• ‫ · أنبياء‬Anbiyāʼ) means "Prophet". Forms of this noun occur 75 times in the Quran. The term
nubuwwah (Arabic: ‫" نبوة‬prophethood") occurs five times in the Quran.
• Meaning of 'Nabi' and 'Rasul' ... The word 'Nabi' (‫)نبي‬is derived from 'Nubuwwat' (‫)نبوة‬. 'Nubuwwat'
means 'to be high' and, thus 'Nabi' means a 'High person'
• Prophets were sent as a mercy by Allah, to convey His message and to teach people how to live a
righteous life. They have the best of characteristics and are to be followed and obeyed. Following a
Prophet is obedience to God and rejecting a Prophet is disobedience to God.
• Prophet Muhammad PBUH is the last of the Prophets, so God's guidance was complete with His
coming, and our salvation is complete with the obedience to God and His Final Prophet PBUH.

Need and importance of Prophethood

• Prophethood is an essential need for people.

• Prophets are necessary for conveying God’s instructions and guidance to mankind.
• God created man for a noble purpose, To worship Him and lead a virtuous life based on His teachings
and guidance.
• God has chosen from every nation at least one prophet to convey His Message to people.
• Prophethood is God’s blessing and favor that He may bestow on whom He wills.
• Prophet’s life serves as a role model for his followers. They are the best in community morally and
intellectually.
• Their personality should attract people to accept their messages.
• Every prophet states clearly that what he receives is not of his own making, 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 conveying the message that 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.

The content of the prophets’ message to mankind can be summarized as follows:

a) Clear concept of God: His attributes, His creation, what should and should not be ascribed
to Him.
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b) Clear idea about the unseen world, the angels, jinn (spirits), Paradise and Hell.

c) Why God has created us, what He wants from us and what rewards and punishments are for
obedience and disobedience.

d) How to run our societies according to His will. That is, clear instructions and laws that, when
applied correctly and honestly, will result in a smoothly functioning, harmonious society.

• Islam teaches that Allah wants to help people to live good lives, so he sends messages to guide
them on how to do so. Many of these messages are found in the Qur’an. Muslims believe that
messages from Allah are communicated through prophets.
• The prophets are the connection between Allah and humanity.
• There are 25 named prophets in the Qur’an, although many believe there may have been as many
as 124,000.
• All of the prophets are considered to be equal: We make no distinction between any of them
(Qur’an 2:136).
• Allah chose the prophets to reveal his truth. They are responsible for the revelation.

In the Qur’an, Allah warns against ignoring the messages given by the prophets:

And We did certainly give Moses the Scripture [ie the Torah] and followed up after him with
messengers. And we gave Jesus, the son of Mary, clear proofs and supported him with the Pure
Spirit [ie the angel Gabriel]. But is it [not] that every time a messenger came to you, [O children of
Israel], with what your soul did not desire, you were arrogant? And a party [of messengers] you
denied and another party you killed. Qur’an 2:87

The Qur’an states that people who attack, or even just ignore, the prophets will be cursed by
Allah.All prophets received the same message about there being one God, which shows that Allah
is unchanging. Muslims believe that Muhammad was the final prophet, which is why he is referred
to as the Seal of the Prophets.

A Brief History of Prophethood

The human race began from one man: Adam. It was from him that the family of man grew and
the human race multiplied. All human beings born in this world have descended from that earliest
pair: Adam and Eve. History and religion are agreed on this point.

Adam, the first man on earth, was also the first Prophet of God. He revealed His religion — Islam
— to him and told him to convey and communicate it to his descendants: to teach them that Allah is
One, the Creator, the Sustainer of the world; that He is the Lord of the Universe and He alone should
be worshipped and obeyed: that to Him they would have to return one day and to Him alone they
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should appeal for help: that they should live righteous lives in accordance with God's pleasure and
that if they did so they would be blessed and if they did not they would suffer both here and in the
hereafter. Those of Adam's descendants who were good trod the right path, but those who were bad
abandoned their father's teachings.

Some began to worship the sun, the moon and the stars; others took to the worship of trees, animals
and rivers. Some believed that air, water, fire, health and all the blessings and forces of Nature were
each under the control of a different god and that the favor of each one could be won by worship. In
this way ignorance gave rise to many forms of polytheism and idolatry, and scores of religions were
formulated. This was the age when Adam's progeny had spread over the globe, and formed different
races and nations.

Every nation had created a different religion for itself, each with rituals of its own. God — the
one Lord and Creator of mankind and the universe — was forgotten. Every kind of evil custom grew;
many evils began to be considered right and many right things were either ignored or condemned as
wrong. At this stage God began to raise Prophets among every people. Each one reminded his people
of the lesson they had forgotten.

They put an end to idol-worship and the practice of associating other deities with God (shirk), did
away with all customs of ignorance, taught them the right way of living in accordance with God's
pleasure, and gave them laws to be followed and enforced in society. God's true Prophets were raised
in every land and among every people. They all possessed one and the same religion — the religion
of Islam. No doubt the methods of teaching and the legal codes of different Prophets varied in
accordance with the needs and the stage of culture of the people among whom they were raised.

The particular teachings of each Prophet were determined by the kind of evils, which he was trying
to eradicate. When people were in the primitive stages of society, civilization and intellectual
development, their laws and regulations were simple; they were modified and improved as the
society evolved and progressed.

Such differences were, however, only superficial. The fundamental teachings of all the religions
were the same, i.e. belief in the unity of God adherence to a life of piety, goodness and peace, and
belief in life after death with its just mechanism of reward and punishment.

Challenges faced by the Prophets of Allah in their mission

Man's attitude towards God's Prophets has been strange. He has ill-treated them and refused to accept
their teachings.
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1. Rejection by the people to whom they were sent. People refused to listen to their messages e.g.,
Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) was rejected by the Quraish, Hazrat Nuh A.S was rejected by his
people.
2. Persecution for what they preached and stood for. Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) was persecuted by
the Quraish through social boycott, abuses, intimidation etc. Nabi Ibrahim was thrown into a burning
fire. Hazrat Nuh A.S was mocked and taunted by his people.
3. Temptations to commit sin e.g., the devil tried to convince Nabi Ibrahim not to sacrifice his son.
4. Threatened with death : Prophet Muhammad, (PBUH), Hazrat Issa (AS) were threatened with death
5. Exiled from their homes. Nabi Musa (A.S) Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) had to leave their homes
due to the hostilities from their people.
6. Opposition and ridicule; Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), Hazrat Nuh (A.S) were openly ridiculed and
opposed by their people.
7. Lack of trust; they were challenged to prove their authenticity through miracles.

But despite the harassment, derision and indignity, to which they were perpetually subjected, these
Apostles of God did not cease to spread their message. Their patient determination at last succeeded:
large groups of people and nations were converted to their creed.

Arabia before Islam

Political Conditions in Arabia

The most remarkable feature of the political life of Arabia before Islam was the total absence of
political organization in any form. With the exception of Yemen in the south-west, no part of the
Arabian Peninsula had any government at any time, and the Arabs never acknowledged any authority
other than the authority of the chiefs of their tribes. The authority of the tribal chiefs, however, rested,
in most cases, on their character and personality, and was moral rather than political.

Since there were no such things as police, courts or judges, the only protection a man could find
from his enemies, was in his own tribe. The tribe had an obligation to protect its members even if
they had committed crimes. Tribalism or ‘asabiyya (the clan spirit) took precedence over ethics. A
tribe that failed to protect its members from their enemies, exposed itself to ridicule, obloquy and
contempt. Ethics, of course, did not enter the picture anywhere.

The population of Arabia consisted of two main divisions, sedentary and nomadic. Hijaz and South
Arabia were dotted with many small and a few large towns. The rest of the country had a floating
population composed of Bedouins.

Economic Conditions:
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Economically, the Jews were the leaders of Arabia. They were the owners of the best arable lands
in Hijaz, and they were the best farmers in the country. They were also the entrepreneurs of such
industries as existed in Arabia in those days, and they enjoyed a monopoly of the armaments
industry. Slavery was an economic institution of the Arabs. Male and female slaves were sold and
bought like animals, and they formed the most depressed class of the Arabian society. The most
powerful class of the Arabs was made up by the capitalists and money-lenders. The rates of interest
which they charged on loans were exorbitant, and were especially designed to make them richer and
richer, and the borrowers poorer and poorer. The most important urban centers of Arabia were
Makkah and Yathrib, both in Hijaz. The citizens of Makkah were mostly merchants, traders and
money-lenders. Their caravans traveled in summer to Syria and in winter to Yemen. They also
traveled to Bahrain in the east and to Iraq in the northeast. The caravan trade was basic to the
economy of Makkah, and its organization called for considerable skill, experience and ability.

Social Conditions

Arabia was a male-dominated society. Women had no status of any kind other than as sex objects.
The number of women a man could marry was not fixed. When a man died, his son “inherited” all
his wives except his own mother. A savage custom of the Arabs was to bury their female infants
alive. Even if an Arab did not wish to bury his daughter alive, he still had to uphold this “honorable”
tradition, being unable to resist social pressures.

Drunkenness was a common vice of the Arabs. With drunkenness went their gambling. They were
compulsive drinkers and compulsive gamblers. The relations of the sexes were extremely loose.
Many women sold sex to make their living since there was little else they could do. These women
flew flags on their houses, and were called “ladies of the flags” (dhat-er-rayyat). Sayyid Qutb of
Egypt in his book, Milestones, published by the International Islamic Federation of Student
Organizations, Salimiah, Kuwait in 1978 (pp. 48, 49), has quoted the famous traditionalist, Imam
Bukhari, on the institution of marriage in Arabia before Islam as follows:

The Shihab (az-Suhri) said: 'Urwah b. az-Zubayr informed him that Aishah, the wife of the Prophet
(God bless and preserve him), informed him that marriage in the Jahiliyah was of four types 1400
years ago:

1. One was the marriage of people as it is today, where a man betroths his ward or his daughter to
another man, and the latter assigns a dower (bridewealth) to her and then marries her.

2. Another type was where a man said to his wife when she was purified from her menses, ‘Send to
N and ask to have intercourse with him;' her husband then stays away from her and does not touch
her at all until it is clear that she is pregnant from that (other) man with whom she sought intercourse.
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When it is clear that she is pregnant, her husband has intercourse with her if he wants. He acts thus
simply from the desire for a noble child. This type of marriage was (known as) nikah alistibda, the
marriage of seeking intercourse.

3. Another type was when a group (raht) of less than ten men used to visit the same woman and all
of them had to have intercourse with her. If she became pregnant and bore a child, when some nights
had passed after the birth she sent for them, and not a man of them might refuse. When they had
come together in her presence, she would say to them, ‘You (pl.) know the result of your acts; I have
borne a child and he is your (sing.) child, N.' – naming whoever she will by his name. Her child is
attached to him, and the man may not refuse.

4. The fourth type is when many men frequent a woman, and she does not keep herself from any
who comes to her. These women are the baghaya (prostitutes). They used to set up at their doors
banners forming a sign. Whoever wanted them went in to them. If one of them conceived and bore
a child, they gathered together to her and summoned the physiognomists.

Then they attached her child to the man whom they thought (the father), and the child remained
attached to him and was called his son, no objection to this course being possible. When Muhammad
(God bless and preserve him) came preaching the truth, he destroyed all the types of marriage of the
Jahiliya except that which people practice today.

The State of Religion in Pre-Islamic Arabia

The period in the Arabian history which preceded the birth of Islam is known as the Times of
Ignorance. Judging by the beliefs and the practices of the pagan Arabs, it appears that it was a most
appropriate name. The Arabs were the devotees of a variety of “religions” which can be classified
into the following categories.

1. Idol-worshippers or polytheists. Most of the Arabs were idolaters. They worshipped numerous
idols and each tribe had its own idol or idols and fetishes. They had turned the Kaaba in Makkah,
which according to tradition, had been built by the Prophet Abraham and his son, Ismael, and was
dedicated by them to the service of One God, into a heathen pantheon housing 360 idols of stone
and wood.

2. Atheists This group was composed of the materialists and believed that the world was eternal.

3. Zindiqs They were influenced by the Persian doctrine of dualism in nature. They believed that
there were two gods representing the twin forces of good and evil or light and darkness, and both
were locked up in an unending struggle for supremacy.

4. Sabines. They worshipped the stars.

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5. Jews When the Romans destroyed Jerusalem in A.D. 70, and drove the Jews out of Palestine and
Syria, many of them found new homes in Hijaz in Arabia. Under their influence, many Arabs also
became converts to Judaism. Their strong centers were the towns of Yathrib, Khayber, Fadak and
Umm-ul-Qura.

6. Christians. The Romans had converted the north Arabian tribe of Ghassan to Christianity. Some
clans of Ghassan had migrated to and had settled in Hijaz. In the south, there were many Christians
in Yemen where the creed was originally brought by the Ethiopian invaders. Their strong center was
the town of Najran.

7. Monotheists There was a small group of monotheists present in Arabia on the eve of the rise of
Islam. Its members did not worship idols, and they were the followers of the Prophet Abraham. The
members of the families of Muhammad, the future prophet, and Ali ibn Abi Talib, the future caliph,
and most members of their clan – the Banu Hashim – belonged to this group.

Education among the Arabs Before Islam

Among the Arabs there were extremely few individuals who could read and write. Most of them
were not very eager to learn these arts. Some historians are of the opinion that the culture of the
period was almost entirely oral. The Jews and the Christians were the custodians of such knowledge
as Arabia had. The greatest intellectual accomplishment of the pagan Arabs was their poetry.

They claimed that God had bestowed the most remarkable qualities of the head upon the Greeks (its
proof is their science and philosophy); of hand upon the Chinese (its proof is their craftsmanship);
and of the tongue upon the Arabs (its proof is their eloquence). Their greatest pride, both before and
after Islam, was their eloquence and poetry.