Knowing our prophets

Knowing Our Prophets-Intro

Who are the prophets?

Prophets are individuals who received Divine revelation and guidance to lead humanity towards righteousness and recognition of God.

Since the inception of history, God sent numerous prophets and messengers to mankind. The messages of the prophets were of two types: regional or universal. While the local prophets were sent with specific messages to specific groups of people; the universal prophets were sent with messages and books for mankind and these were limited to five:

• The Book of Abraham, sometimes referred as the Booklet (LXXXVII:19).
• The Psalms given to David (IV:63 and XVII:55).
• The Torah granted to Moses (II:87, III:3 & 4, VI:91 & 154).
• The Evangel or the Gospel revealed to Jesus (V:46).
• The Quran revealed to Muhammad.

These Prophets are called the "ulu l-azm" prophets meaning those of great constancy.

Allah cannot be seen, He cannot appear Himself before human beings to give them His law. So how does He communicate to the people?

Allah appointed some chosen people to represent Him on the earth. That Viceregent of Allah is called "Prophet." As a mirror has a bright side to receive light and another side to reflect that light, so a Prophet has the highest spiritual purity which enables him to receive the divine message and a human body which enables him to communicate that message to his fellow human beings.
The purpose of Prophet hood is two-fold: First to bring people nearer to Allah and the Second to bring peace and happiness in the world.

How many prophets?
The total number of prophets that God sent to humanity was 124,000, and although they were sent to nearly all civilizations, the Quran only mentions twenty-five of them by name. The first of them was Prophet Adam, the father of humanity, and the last of them was Prophet Muhammad, the seal of the prophets.

Age of the prophets
Allot of the prophets had a life of more than 100 yrs. They lived and also had children till late, some had sons who took over prophet hood after them on the command of Allah whilst some had prophets in their latter generations.

Infallibility
A unique characteristic of all the prophets and messengers is that they were infallible. They committed no sins. To demonstrate the validity of this concept is to consider that humanity needed prophets and messengers to set an exemplary structured lifestyle to emulate and follow. If they had committed errors, then people might be obliged to exemplify and excuse their errors, thus making the prophets and messengers untrustworthy.
Infallibility means protection from error in teaching doctrine of faith and morals and is defined as a spiritual grace from God that enables a person to abstain from sins by his own free will. The power of infallibility and immunity from sins does not make a person incapable of committing mistakes; rather, he or she refrains from transgression by his or her own power and will, due to realizing the consequences of their actions.

Infallibility is essential since the mission of the prophets and messengers was not only to convey Divine scriptures from God, but also to guide humanity toward the right path [God]. Therefore, prophets and messengers had to be role models and perfect examples for humanity. The mention of infallibility is stated thirteen times in the Quran, and one such example is when God said to Satan, “Certainly you shall have no authority over My servants except those who follow you and go astray.” (15:42) In another instance in the Quran we read, “Satan then said to God, 'By Your might, then I will surely mislead them all, except Your chosen servants among them [the messengers and imams].'” (38:82)

When we look at the example of Prophet Muhammad, we see that he never committed any sin, nor was he ever harsh to any person or animal! God has stated in the Quran, “And by the mercy of Allah you dealt with them [people] gently, and had you been severe and harsh-hearted, they would have broken away from you.” (3:158)
Suppose that there is a man who, just like ourselves commits or can commit sins or wrongs, and then such a man claims that he has been sent by Allah as a Prophet to lead people on the right path. Naturally, the people cannot believe that what he says is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth; because his every word is liable to be wrong. So he cannot command unreserved respect and indubitable obedience from his people. Therefore, to carry out the mission of Allah, it was necessary that the Prophets be infallible and sinless

*Hence, logically also one can conclude that infallibility is a very important aspect of the leaders of Islam. And one can’t doubt the power of Allah in granting it to those He has chosen to convey His message and to lead the ummah.*

Unfortunately, many distorted stories and images about God's prophets exist. For example, stories in the present-day version of the Old Testament accuse Prophet David of adultery with Baath-Sheba; Prophet Noah of being drunk; Prophet Lot of having committed incest; and Prophet Moses of committing adultery! Islam adamantly opposes such unethical and immoral writings that have been attributed to the prophets of God. Shias (followers of the Prophet and Ahlul-bayt) believe in infallibility. However, not all Ahl-Sunnah schools subscribe to this belief.
Powers

The Prophets were given miracles as their credentials. Miracles, according -to our belief, are such performances which are not impossible, but which cannot be done without apparatus, medicine or practice. But the Prophet performs them without any practice and without any machinery. Curing the blind persons or lepers is not impossible. But Jesus Christ cured them without any medicine, and that was his miracle. Muhammad (peace be upon him and his progeny) had innumerable miracles, but his greatest living miracle is the Qur'an.
Prophets all had a hard time

Another belief of the Muslims is that God preordained all of the prophets; but at the same time, they had to strive for prophethood. The foremost example of the vocational test that prophets had to endure is told in the life of Prophet Abraham, the father of all prophets.

References:
http://www.al-islam.org/begin/intro/rahim.html#3
http://www.al-islam.org/islam_rizvi/

http://www.al-islam.org/discovering-islam/

http://www.dartabligh.org/prophets/familytree.html