The Prophet of Islam and other Prophets

We find from the Quran and Hadith that a large number of God’s messengers were sent to different nations and regions. The majority of these Prophets are unknown from the historical point of view. It is because the books written by these messengers’ contemporaries make no mention of them or their work. It is as if to these chroniclers the prophets and the incidents connected with them were not worthy of being mentioned.

For instance, Prophet Abraham was born in Iraq, Prophet Moses was born in Egypt, and Prophet Christ was born in Palestine, yet the ancient histories of the respective countries make no reference to them. This was the case with all the past prophets. These messengers were believed in as a matter of creed, without their ever having been established as personalities from the historical standpoint.

Some of these prophets find mention in the Bible. But in a sacred book this goes by belief and not according to historical records.

The characters of Muhammad’s predecessors have been presented in such a distorted way that, if biblical statements were taken to be correct, it would be hard to believe that they were indeed God’s apostles. According to the picture painted in the Bible, they were not superior models, especially from the ethical point of view. One very important feature of the Quran is that it has restored those chapters in the lives of the past prophets, which had been lost to the people, because they had gone unrecorded.

Without doubt the prophets are examples of the loftiest human character. But because of the unscientific methods of history-writing which prevailed in their times only events connected with kings, royalty and generals were considered worthy of being recorded, thus depriving posterity of precious details of the lives of the prophets. The Quran opened this closed chapter for the first time in history.

But to what end? It might seem that a recital of the facts relating to the life and mission of the Prophet of Islam would have sufficed. But there was a very good reason for making frequent mention of these prophets individually, and also testifying to their having received God’s guidance, a blessing which exalted them above all other creatures. It was so that the Prophet of Islam and his Ummah might learn valuable lessons from the ways in which these prophets dealt with their circumstances and the situations in which they found themselves.

In the Quran, the Prophet of Islam is thus addressed:

These are whom God guided aright, so follow their guidance. (The Quran, 6:90)

Everyone of them was an upright man guided by God along a straight path and as such was superior to all others. Chapter 6 mentions a number of these prophets by name. They are: Ibrahim (Abraham), Ishaaq (Issac), Yaqub (Jacob), Nuh (Noah), Dawood (David), Sulaiman (Solomon), Ayyub (Job), Yousuf (Joseph), Musa (Moses), Haroon (Aaron), Zakariya, Isa (Jesus), Ismail, AI-Yahya (John the Baptist), Younus (Jonah), and Lut (Lot), (Peace be upon them all).

In the fifth chapter, mentioning the earlier prophets and their communities, the Quran further clarifies this point:

We have ordained a law and a path for each of you (The Quran, 5:48).

The crux of this matter is that although God’s religion is one-monotheism-the human condition keeps changing; individually as well as socially.

That is why, despite there being one single religion, its practical application varies with circumstances. This is what accounts for the dissimilarity of approach on the part of different prophets. Then the human race is spread all over the world, while each respective prophet, including the Prophet of Islam, came from one particular region. That is why it was impossible for one prophet to experience all the possible contingencies which, on a vaster level, would subsequently affect the human race at different times and places. These are the special considerations, which account for the mention of the past prophets in the Quran at length.

When we have before us all the prophets, it becomes possible to draw on examples pertinent to all sets of circumstances faced by each generation in turn. This is the main purpose of the Quran in bringing these lost links of the history of the prophets to the knowledge of succeeding generations. In this respect the analysis of the incidents arising from the circumstances in which these Prophets lived is an integral part of what is called in the Quran (completion of religion) takmeel-e-din. (The Quran, 5:3)

The difference of Minhaj or shariah—each Prophet was given a different Shariah (detailed code of conduct/laws)—with each succeeding prophet is not on account of evolution. That is, it is not true to say that the earlier prophets were given an incomplete shariah, while the final Prophet was given the complete shariah. This difference is due to a variety of factors in the application of Islam and not to the evolution of the religion itself. Since social environments in the times of successive prophets were different, the shariah given to them had to relate to their circumstances. Were those past situations to prevail once again, the shariah of the previous prophets would be followed as was done is their times.

On the one hand, the Quran gives us an account of the 23-year prophetic life of the Prophet of Islam, while on the other, it also recounts in detail the lives and circumstances of other prophets who came over the last tens of thousands of years. Both these accounts (the Prophet of Islam’s life and circumstances and those of other prophets) equally form part of the Quran and their combination constitutes the complete religion. Thus, a complete din includes the teachings of other prophets along with the teachings of the Prophet of Islam as mentioned in the Quran. After this introduction let us see in the light of certain examples how references to other prophets form part of the totality of religion and how they provide guidance to believers in different sets of circumstances.

Such examples are to be found in the times of the Prophet Adam, who was the first man as well as the first prophet. We find from the Quran that Adam had two sons, Cain and Abel. Cain quarreled violently with Abel and matters escalated to the point where he became intent on killing his own brother. On this occasion, Abel, the virtuous brother, has been recorded in the Quran as having said:

If you stretch out your hand to kill me, I shall not lift mine to slay you. (The Quran, 5:28)

From this we learn the shariah based on the example (uswah) set by a virtuous person who had received guidance from the first prophet. This shows that among the believers, mutual strife is totally forbidden. If at times the believers reach a point of head-on clash and confrontation, it is the virtuous one who refrains from killing his brother and who risks being killed.

This example is borne out by the teachings of the Prophet of Islam himself. According to a tradition the Prophet totally forbade fighting or even confrontation amongst Muslims. Once a certain person asked the Prophet how, if a Muslim were intent on killing him, he should react to this. The Prophet replied:

You should be the better of the two sons of Adam. (Sunan Abu Dawood, Hadith No. 4259)

A practical example of this shariah of the first Prophet, endorsed by the Prophet of Islam, can be seen in the life of Usman, the third Caliph. When a group of Muslims came to kill him, despite all the power he had at his disposal, he did not give permission for arms to be taken up against the insurgents.

As regards Prophet Abraham in the Quran, the believers are told, “Indeed you have an excellent example in Abraham and those who followed him” (The Quran, 60:4). There are many aspects to this good example. Here we shall mention only one.

We find from a prayer offered by Abraham that the culture prevalent in his times had totally corrupted people’s minds. As a result of worshipping false gods for several centuries, they had allowed these deities to become a part of their unconscious minds. It had become almost impossible for a person born in these urban centers of idol worship to keep himself untainted by this corrupting influence (The Quran, 14:36).

At this juncture, the Prophet Abraham devised a historic plan of founding a new generation, a step which has no precedent in ancient history. According to this plan, the Prophet Abraham settled Ismail and his mother Hajira in a desert in Arabia. It was at that time an uninhabited valley far away from the centers of civilization. Here the environment was totally natural. Thus, it was possible to raise a generation, cut off from the atmosphere of idolatrous civilization, which would retain its God-given nature intact.

Abraham’s plan fructified and when Ishmael grew up, he married a virtuous lady of a Bedouin tribe. With this union, the generation desired by God began to take shape in this desert world. In this atmosphere there were only two things required for intellectual training-internal human nature and the outer universe created by God “with Truth.” (The Quran, 14:19)

In this healthy and favourable atmosphere generation succeeded generation over a long period of two thousand five hundred years. This culminated in the final Prophet being raised among these people. His was a historic generation, which produced those high-calibre individuals, noble souls known as the sahaba, the Prophet’s companions, numbering about one lakh. The Quran calls them ‘the best people,’ while certain orientalists have called them a “community of heroes” in view of the extraordinary feats performed by them.

This example of Prophet Abraham shows that in any age where the corruption of an evil civilization predominates, and it appears that the people living in that atmosphere will not be able to remain aloof from the general perversion of values, the only course is to find a safe haven far away from bad influences. These special arrangements may be made for the training and education of children and young people.

If this plan is properly carried out, as the history of Prophets Abraham and Ismail tells us, this training center of nature may once again produce such noble souls as are well-equipped to change the course of history, so that it may be re-directed along healthier lines.

Another incident which pertains to a prophet is recounted in the Quran. It concerned Prophet Yunus, who was sent to communicate the message of monotheism to the idolaters of Nineveh, an ancient city of Iraq. After doing dawah work there for a period of time, he felt that his hearers were not going to believe in God’s message, and so deserved divine punishment for their denial of monotheism. Arriving at this conclusion on his own, he left Nineveh.

The people of Ninevah remained unaffected, while Prophet Yunus was swallowed up by a whale. He suddenly found himself in the whale’s belly, and there was no way out of this plight.

What was the reason behind this? The reason was that a community may be adjudged deniers of monotheism only when they have had the message of dawah conveyed to them in full. A lack of success after performing dawah work for only a limited period of time does not warrant the stigmatizing of a people as deniers of God’s message.

Therefore, when Prophet Yunus (Jonah) found himself in the whale’s belly, he gave himself up to introspection. Then it was revealed to him that he had abandoned his people before the completion of his task. The sunnah (way) of the prophets is that they leave their people only after the dawah work has reached its completion. When he realized his mistake, he sought forgiveness from God and prayed. God granted his prayer. The whale then brought him to a dry land and regurgitated him. After this, Prophet Yunus came back to his people and began calling them again to the path of monotheism. This time, almost all of his people entered the fold of the religion of monotheism.

Such an event as relating to a prophet has an extremely important lesson for believers. This incident has been thus described in the Quran:

And the fish swallowed him while he was blaming himself. Had he not been one of those who acknowledge the glory of God, he would certainly have remained inside the fish till the Day of Resurrection. (The Quran, 37:142-144)

This goes to show how great is the responsibility of dawah. Those who fail to discharge this duty properly, are destined according to the law of God, to find themselves “in the whale’s belly.” And they will never be saved from this great ordeal until they repent and return to perform dawah work. Otherwise they will remain in that plight until Doomsday. If we ponder on this, we find that this example applies in all respects to the Muslim Ummah. Such are their problems that the Muslim Ummah has been engulfed in the belly of the whale for more than a hundred years. Countless attempts and innumerable sacrifices in terms of wealth and precious lives have not succeeded in leading them out of this quandary. When looked at in the light of this sunnah of the Prophet, the only reason we can find for their being in this plight is that the Ummah has abandoned dawah work for a very long period of time. The Muslims have reached a stage where they have no idea of how dawah is to be performed. They engage themselves in community work while calling it dawah. There is only one way for them to come out of the “belly of the whale” and that is to sincerely admit how mistaken has been their total negligence of the duty of dawah. This would be an act of repentance on their part. The whole ummah must engage themselves in performing dawah work anew throughout the nations of the world and, if they are to fulfill all its conditions, they shall have to bring their task to completion.

The Quran repeatedly mentions events concerning Prophet Moses. Without doubt there are many lessons in his life for the believers. Here I would like to mention one lesson which I have personally experienced.

I have been working for Islamic dawah since 1948. But in the early days I was not able to speak out (or make an extempore speech) to an audience. Therefore, I used to write my speeches and then read them out. If I had no written speech in front of me, my heart trembled and I began to shake, unable to express myself.

This was the situation for about fifteen years. It had become an accepted fact that I did not speak impromptu at gatherings, but only read out papers. It was only in 1962 that I reached the stage of being able to speak extempore in public.

In 1962 the Jama‘at-i-Islami had organized a monthly public meeting at Anjan Shaheed, a town in Azamgarh, U.P. I too was to address this gathering. However, contrary to my habit, I did not put my speech down in writing. When my turn came to deliver a speech, I stood up and recalled the prayer made by Moses and its answer from God. I uttered these words in a frenzied, emotional state. “The Quran is not a book of history. It is a living guidance. The incidents and events mentioned in it are as relevant for us as they were for the personalities of the past referred to, in the Quran.” Then after recounting the story of Moses, I said: “If a servant of God finds himself helpless in making a speech and he calls to God for help in the words of Moses:

My Lord, I fear they will reject me, and my breast is straitened and my tongue is not fluent’ (The Quran, 26:12-13), I am certain that he will receive the same answer as was received by Moses: “You have been granted your request, Moses.” (The Quran, 20:36)

This incident marked a turning point in my life. From that time onwards, all my hesitancy in speech was gone and I began to address large gatherings without any diffidence. This is a personal example of the great lesson we have in the life of Prophet Moses. And there are many other lessons in his life, which will serve as a guide to believers right till Doomsday.

Similarly, the Quran repeatedly mentions Christ. There are many examples in his life and teachings for the believers, one such example being an observation made by him to his disciples:

But I say to you who hear: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you, and pray for those who spitefully use you. To him who strikes you on the one cheek, offer the other also. And from him who takes away your cloak, do not withhold your tunic either. Give to everyone who asks of you. And from him who takes away your goods, do not ask them back. (Luke 6:27:30).

Christ has not taught us passivity in these words. This is in actual fact a part of dawah etiquette. A dayee must always possess good behaviour unconditionally. If he were to indulge in retaliation, the normal, favourable atmosphere essential for the performance of dawah would vanish altogether.

The sunnah of the Prophet of Islam testifies to this. Let us take an incident relating to Suhaib Rumi, who migrated from Makkah to Madinah after most of the Muslims had left Makkah. Some way out of the city, a group of Quraysh youths blocked his path. They told him that they would not let him go with all the earnings he had made in Makkah. Suhaib had a few dinars (gold coins) with him at that time. He asked them:

If I let you have these dinars, will you let me go?

They said that they would. Suhayb then gave all his money to them and carried on to Madinah. When Suhayb reached Madinah and the Prophet heard about this incident, he said:

Suhayb has profited! Suhayb has profited. (Sahih Ibn Hibban, Hadith No. 7082).

The truth is that the ethics preached by Christ to his disciples apply equally to the believers. These are the salient pre-requisites of dawah, which the dayee has to adopt in the case of the madu. If a moral code of this nature is not adhered to unilaterally, the dawah process can never even be initiated.

Prophet Yusuf (Joseph) is the only one of the prophets whose story takes up a whole chapter (entitled Yusuf). His story concludes with these words: “That which we now reveal to you is a tale of the unknown...Assuredly, in its narrative is a lesson for men of understanding.” (12:103, 112). That is to say that it was a lost chapter of history, which had been opened by God, so that the believers might learn from it.

Moreover, near the end of the story, we are told in the words of Prophet Yusuf “Those who keep from evil and endure with fortitude, will never be denied their reward by God” (12:90). This shows that the character of Prophet Yusuf exemplifies the principle of taqwa (piety) and sabr (patience). By that token wherever the principles of taqwa and sabr are implemented, they will certainly yield the desired result.

In this narration of Prophet Yusuf there are many lessons to be learnt. Here I would like to mention one in particular. The story unfolds in Egypt, which was ruled at that time by an idolatrous king. Yusuf entered this kingdom as a slave and was later imprisoned for purely non-political reasons. Subsequently a dream which the Pharaoh had, brought about a revolutionary change in the state of affairs. Impressed by Yusuf’s interpretation of his dream; he offered him a post in his government which, in today’s jargon, might be termed the Food and Agriculture Minister. Since this was an agricultural age, when the national economy was based on agriculture, this post had become the most important of all the departments of the kingdom. Therefore, in actuality, Yusuf came to assume the position of prime minister in the state.

This aspect of the matter is extremely important, for the Prophet Yusuf was certainly a dayee of tawhid (monotheism) (The Quran, 12:39). Despite, this he accepted a subsidiary post under the patronship of an idolatrous King of Egypt. His doing so may have appeared inappropriate, but according to the Quran itself; it was a matter of taqwa and sabr in the full sense of these words.

In this we find an important principle of the religion of monotheism. That is to say that being a monotheist does not mean that in practical matters, no partnership can be formed with those who are not monotheists. Tawhid does not demand that the confrontation must continue between monotheists and non-monotheists until the non-monotheists are given a deathblow, surrendering complete power into the hands of monotheists. The example of the Prophet Yusuf clearly refutes the validity of such a concept. On the contrary, the truth is that while adhering steadfastly to belief in monotheism, in one’s personal life we must adopt the policy of adjustment and partnership with others in practical and social affairs.

If we look deeper, we will find that in present times, the sufferings Muslims are facing in every country are mostly due to their ignorance of this sunnah of Prophet Yusuf. In present times, there is every possibility for Muslim religious leaders, by accepting the sovereignty of the Muslim rulers in their own countries, to deal with them on the basis of partnership.

Similarly, in countries with non-Muslim majorities, Muslims may benefit from any democratic set-up, which is based on a system of power-sharing. If the Muslim leaders of modern times had accepted this fact, extraordinary opportunities for progress would have opened up for Muslims in every country. But our Muslim leaders have adopted the politics of confrontation allover the world. This is a clear deviation from the sunnah of the Prophet, which will result in nothing in this life and in the Hereafter. These few illustrations go to show that there are very precious examples for believers in the lives and teachings of the other prophets mentioned in the Quran. We must therefore adopt these sunnahs as being as reliable as the examples set by the Prophet of Islam.