Belief in Messengers and Prophets
Messengers are human beings chosen by God who have the honour of conveying God’s message to other men and women. Being such a Messenger is not a position that one attains by any consciously designed effort. It is a grace from God, but God grants this grace to those who are deserving of it.
Messengers are not then, like the rank and file of us. True, they are men but they are men of an extremely high moral, spiritual and intellectual standard that qualifies them–in the eyes of God–to be the bearers of His light to the world. When God chooses any of them, He supports the messenger with a clear ‘sign’ [Hadid: 25] that proves the truth of his claim, and distinguishes him from false prophets, sorcerers and soothsayers [Taghabun:41-42], [Taha: 69]. None of them betrays the message or falls short of being exemplary in practising what he preaches. [Hud: 88].
Asked about Prophet Muhammad’s conduct his wife ‘A’ishah said, “It was the Qur’an,” meaning that he embodied all the ideals which the Qur’an presents.
Two related points about messengers which the Qur’an stresses, and which therefore deserve some elaboration are the humanity of prophets and the nature of their task.
Despite the vast spiritual, moral and intellectual difference between them and ordinary men, and despite the special relation with God that they enjoy, prophets are nonetheless humans with all that this term implies. They beget and are begotten; they eat and drink and go about in market plates [Furqan: 20]; they sleep and they die [Anbiya: 34]; they forget and they err [Taha: 121), [Kahf: 34].
Their knowledge is limited; and can therefore tell only that part of the future which God reveals to them [Jin: 26-27]. They cannot intercede with God on behalf of any person except with His permission [Jin: 26-27], and it is not left to them to cause people to go in the right path [Qasas: 56]. In short, they have no part to play in the running of the affairs of the universe [Al-‘lmran:128]. Many early Muslim scholars have observed that to emphasise the humanity of the Prophet the Qur’an called him ‘servant of God’ on the three occasions on which he was honoured.
“Blessed be He who has sent down the Salvation [Qur’an] upon His servant.” [Furqan: 1]
“Glory be to Him, who carried His servant by night from the Holy Mosque to the Further Mosque the precincts of which We have blessed, that We might show him some of Our signs.” [Israa 1]
“When the servant of God stood calling on Him, they were well-nigh upon him in swarms.” [Jinn:119]
A Prophet whose humanity is specially emphasised is Jesus. He was created in the same manner as Adam was created, from soil [Al-‘lmran: 59j; he is the son of Mary not of God [Nisa’: 157]; he and his mother used to eat food IMa’ida: 75]; he is indeed the word of God [Baqara, II: 45j but since he is a human being in the full sense of the word, this should not be interpreted to mean that there is a Divine element in him. He is the word of God only in the sense that God said ‘Be’ and he was. But in that sense everything is the word of God. Why then is he in particular called the word of God! Because, as many scholars have, rightly explained, he came more directly as a result of this word. Jesus is thus a loyal servant of God who never claimed that he was in any sense divine. [Ma’ida:116-117]
Messengers are entrusted, we said, with the task of conveying God’s word to other people.
God has given man the power to understand the difference between truth and falsehood, especially in religious matters, once this has been explained to him. God has also given him the ability, by reason of his free-will, either to accept or reject this truth. And since it is only God who knows what goes on in people’s minds, it is only He who can judge who is worthy of being guided and who deserves to be left groping in the dark; and it is God who according to this knowledge guides whom He will and withholds His guidance from Whom He will. A prophet has no such power, and cannot, therefore, guide whom he loves. [Qasas: 56].
“Then remind them thou are only one who reminds, thou art not charged to oversee them.” [Gashiya: 21-22].
He should not, therefore feel sad if people turn away from him, or impute falsehoods to his message [An’am: 33-34]. But this is a most difficult rule to abide by. We love to be accepted by the community in which we live; many of us must have experienced that strange feeling of sadness, loneliness, and being lost when we come to live as
. This is made evident by the fact that the few occasions that the Qur’an expresses God’s disapproval of a certain line of behaviour taken by the Prophet Muhammad are related to his being so keen to win adherents as to verge on exceeding desirable limits .
“Yet perchance if they believe wilt consume thyself, following not in this tiding, thou alter them of grief.” [Kahf: 6].
“Indeed they were near to seducing thee from that We revealed to thee, that thou mightest, forge against Us another, and then they would surely have taken thee as a friend. And had We not confirmed thee, surely thou were near to inclining unto them a very little; then would We have let thee taste the double of life and the double of death; and then thou wouldst have found none to help thee against Us. [Isra’: 73-74].
this article/section doesn’t mention clearly that Muslims believe in earlier prophets such as the ones familiar to people from the Bible…also doesn’t differentiate between prophets and messengers…
could get straight to the point…”Messengers are men of an extremely high moral, spiritual and intellectual standard…” etc
about ordinary things, not about the message they have been sent with…?
is this sentence needed?
Could get straight to the point…e.g. “As they are often reminded in the Qur’an, the duty of Messengers is to convey the message. They are not responsible for whether people accept the message or not” (or similar wording)
strangers?
this is a good point but could be edited to reduce the length of the section
give example?
