Space Forum / Astronomy / July 2008

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Prophethood (nubuwwa)

The prophets were the people who received divine revelation. Allah has
sent numerous prophets and messengers to humankind since the dawn of
history. These prophets were of two types: "local" and "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 all of humankind. There were only five universal prophets,
and their names were Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad (may
the peace of Allah be upon all of them).

A unique characteristic of all the prophets and messengers is that
they were infallible - that is, they never committed any sin. The
easiest way to see this is to consider that these people were the
examples sent for humanity to follow, and so if they committed errors,
people would be obliged to follow their errors, thereby making the
prophets and messengers untrustable. Infallibility means protection,
and, in Islamic terminology, means the spiritual grace of Allah
enabling a person to abstain from sins by his own free will. This
power of infallibility and sinlessness does not make a person
incapable of committing sins; rather, he refrains from sins and
mistakes by his own power and will.

Infallibility is essential since the job of the prophets and
messengers is not only to convey the divine ******ures of Allah but
also to lead and guide humanity towards the right path. Therefore,
they have to be role models and perfect examples for mankind. This has
basis in both the Qur'an and conventional wisdom; the Qur'an mentions
infallibility 13 times. Allah says to the Satan: "Certainly you shall
have no authority over My servants except those who follow you and go
astray." (15:42) The Satan then says to Allah: "By Your might, then I
will surely mislead them all, except Your chosen servants among them
[the messengers and imams]."(38:82)

Not only did Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family) not
commit any sins, but he was also never harsh to human beings or
animals. Allah says: "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)

In most societies, people with bad records would be ineligible to be
presidential, governmental, or mayoral candidates since they would be
expected to lead society and be good examples of righteousness and
honesty. Unfortunately, as a campaign of distorting the image of the
prophets of God, many distorted stories exist today, such as the
stories in the present-day version of the Old Testament accusing
Prophet David (peace be upon him) of adultery with Baathsheba, Prophet
Noah (peace be upon him) getting drunk, Prophet Lot (peace be upon
him) committing incest, and Prophet Moses (peace be upon him)
committing adultery with the Ethiopian women. These are examples of
the ethical wrongdoings and moral weaknesses that the enemies of Allah
tried to ascribe to His pure messengers.

The Holy Qur'an speaks of the sins attributed to certain prophets such
as Adam (peace be upon him). These verses should not be understood
literally in the sense that Adam was committing a sin; allegorical
verses are common in the Qur'an. Adam (peace be upon him) did not
disobey the obligatory commands of Allah; the command that he did not
honor was a recommended command, and, therefore, in the Islamic law,
he cannot be considered to have committed a sin.

Although Allah preordained who the prophets were going to be, the
prophets nonetheless had to strive for this position. The foremost
example of this testing that the prophets had to endure can be seen in
the life of Prophet Abraham (peace be upon him), the father of the
prophets. Abraham (peace be upon him) was born into an idolatrous
society, but by the purity of his nature he recognized that the idols
his people worshipped were capable of nothing, neither harm nor good.
So one day, when no one was present, he smashed all of them but the
largest, and when the people came to him and asked who had destroyed
their gods, he told them to ask the remaining statue if they really
believed that their stone idols had power. Although the people
realized at that point that their idols were powerless, they didn't
know how to respond, so out of shame and anger they cast Abraham
(peace be upon him) into a huge fire. But Allah protected Abraham
(peace be upon him) from the fire and confounded the plots of the
polytheists.

After being tortured for and then saved by his faith in Allah, Abraham
(peace be upon him) still had to undergo the hardest test of obedience
to Allah - the direct order, from Allah, to sacrifice his son Ishmael.
This order came to him in a dream, and although sadness overwhelmed
him, he was a strong believer in Allah and did not question it.
Ishmael too accepted the command of Allah unquestioningly and allowed
his father to lead him to a mountaintop to be sacrificed. His only
request was that his father place him face down so that his father
would not see his expression as he was being killed. Abraham (peace be
upon him) raised his blade, still ready to comply with the command of
Allah. But just then came the revelation that this had only been a
test, that God would not order Abraham (peace be upon him) to
sacrifice his son, and that Abraham (peace be upon him) could
sacrifice a sheep in his stead. This event is commemorated every year
on a holiday called the Feast of Sacrifice ('eid al-adhaa) on which
animals are killed and the meat distributed to the poor.
After passing these tests, Abraham (peace be upon him) became the
leader of humankind as well as the father of the prophets of the three
main monotheistic religions - Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

Although Allah sent prophets to every group of people on the earth,
the Qur'an only mentions the names of 25 of them. The first of them
was Adam (peace be upon him), the father of humanity, and the last of
them and the seal of the prophets was Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon
him and his family).

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