According to Islam, God created man for a noble purpose:
to worship Him and lead a virtuous life based on His teachings and guidance. How
would man know his role and the purpose of his existence unless he received
clear and practical instructions of what God wants him to do? Here comes the
need for prophethood. Thus God has chosen from every nation at least one
prophet to convey His Message to people.
One might ask, how were the prophets chosen and who were
entitled to this great honor?
Prophethood is God’s blessing and favor that He may
bestow on whom He wills. However, from surveying the various messengers
throughout history, three features of a prophet may be recognized:
1. He is the best in his community morally and
intellectually. This is necessary because a prophet’s life serves as a role
model for his followers. His personality should attract people to accept his
message rather than drive them away by his imperfect character. After
receiving the message, he is infallible. That is, he would not commit any sin.
He might make some minor mistakes, which are usually corrected by revelation.
2. He is supported by miracles to prove that he
is not an imposter. Those miracles are granted by the power and permission of
God and are usually in the field in which his people excel and are recognized
as superior. We might illustrate this by quoting the major miracles of the
three prophets of the major world religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
Moses’ contemporaries were excellent in magic, so his
major miracle was to defeat the best magicians of Egypt of his day. Jesus’
contemporaries were recognized as skilled physicians, therefore, his miracles
were to raise the dead and cure incurable diseases. The Arabs, the
contemporaries of the Prophet Muhammad, may the mercy and blessings of God be
upon him, were known for their eloquence and magnificent poetry. So Prophet
Muhammad’s major miracle was the Quran, the equivalent of which the whole
legion of Arab poets and orators could not produce, despite the repeated
challenge from the Quran itself. Again, Muhammad’s miracle has something
special about it. All previous miracles were limited to its time and place;
that is, they were shown to specific people at a specific time. Not so with
the miracle of Prophet Muhammad the Quran. It is a universal and everlasting
miracle. Previous generations witnessed it and future generations will witness
its miraculous nature in terms of its style, content and spiritual uplifting. These
can still be tested and will thereby prove the divine origin of the Quran.
3. 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.
Prophets are necessary for conveying God’s instructions
and guidance to mankind. We have no way of knowing why we were created. What
will happen to us after death? Is there any life after death? Are we
accountable for our actions? These and so many other questions about God,
angels, paradise, hell, and more, cannot be answered without direct revelation
from the Creator and Knower of the unseen. Those answers must be authentic and
must be brought by individuals whom we trust and respect. That is why
messengers are the elite of their societies in terms of moral conduct and
intellectual ability.
Hence, the slanderous Biblical stories about some of the
great prophets are not accepted by Muslims. For example, Lot is reported to
have committed incestuous fornication while drunk. David is alleged to have
sent one of his leaders to his death in order to marry his wife. Prophets, to
Muslims, are greater than what these stories indicate. These stories cannot be
true from the Islamic point of view.
The prophets are also miraculously supported by God and
instructed by Him to affirm the continuity of the message. 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.
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.
It is clear from the above discussion that there is no
substitute for prophets. Even today with the advancement of science, the only
authentic source of information about the supernatural world is revelation. Guidance
can be obtained neither from science nor from mystic experience. The first is
too materialistic and limited; the second is too subjective and frequently
misleading.
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