History of the Prophets. Maulana Muhammad Ali
or one nation to the exclusion of others. Prophets were, therefore, sent to every nation, though the names of all of them have not been mentioned in the Qur’an:
“And there is not a people but a warner has gone among them.” (35:24)
“And for every nation there is a messenger.” (10:47)
“And (We sent) messengers We have mentioned to thee before and messengers We have not mentioned to thee.” (4:164)
That is not all. Belief in the prophets of other nations is one of the fundamental principles of Islam. One of the three chief articles of the faith of a Muslim, as stated at the very commencement of the Holy Qur’an, is:
“And who believe in that which has been revealed to thee and that which was revealed before thee.” (2:4)
The Qur’an thus lays down the basis of a brotherhood of the whole human race to which no other heavenly book has made any approach. That God is Lord of all the nations of the world is not here a dry dogma; it is a living principle, not only recognizing that all nations were treated equally, physically as well as spiritually, but going further and making it an article of the faith of a Muslim that he believes in all the prophets, as he believes in the Prophet Muhammad. Surely a universal religion upon which the whole human race could agree could go no further.
It should be borne in mind in reading the histories of the prophets as given in the Holy Qur’an that the object is not to narrate history as such, but to bring out certain characteristics of the histories of different nations, to mention incidents which contain prophetic allusion to the Holy Prophet’s life, or to the future of Islam, and to comfort the Prophet with illustrations from previous sacred history that truth shall ultimately be established and that opposition shall entirely fail and be overthrown. The Qur’an does not concern itself with the details of these histories, not even with the details of what messages a prophet delivered to his people or how he was received. It contents itself with the broad facts that every prophet delivered the message of Unity, invited people to obey God and to do good to fellowmen, and aimed at the moral betterment of the people to whom he was sent. It shows, by mentioning prophets of Israelite and non-Israelite nationality, that the cardinal principles of the religion of all the prophets were one and the same. The references in the earlier chapters are generally very brief. Whatever details there are belong to a period when opposition to the Prophet was at its highest, and the object was, no doubt, to tell the opponents when they were at the height of their power that they could not escape their ultimate overthrow. Another point worth noting is that every prophet is spoken of as being sent to a single nation, with the exception of the Holy Prophet Muhammad, who is spoken of as being sent to all the nations of the world.
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