Prophets and Messengers of Allah

Almighty Allah has from time to time asked some of chosen pious men to guide the humanity lest they fall in the trap of the evil and Satan. It is believed that in all Allah sent some 1,24,000 prophets to different people to guide them and keep them on the path as desired by Him alone for Allah is the One who commands this universe and it would be on His final command that the day of judgment will come with the destruction of the entire universe.

Here a question arises as to what is the difference between a prophet and a messengers. Well in a simple layman's language as I have understood over the period of time is that each messenger is a prophet but each prophet is not a messenger.

The word prophet in Arabic is known as a Nabi. These were the chosen people of Allah who were tasked to guide people who had gone astray from the chosen path of Allah and help them to follow the righteous path prescribed to them by the earlier messengers of Allah.

Messenger of Allah are some of the many prophets specially chosen by Allah who were blessed with a code of conduct/law by Allah to their people. These special prophets are called Rasul in Arabic. For instance Prophets Dawood (David) Musa (Moses), Isa (Isac) and Muhammad, may peace be upon them all, were specially chosen to be the messenger of Allah and were blessed with the Hoy Books for the guidance of mankind which had gone astray since the last prophets came upon them and asked them to follow the righteous path of Allah.

While Nuh (Noah) may peace be upon him was not blessed with a Holy Book, he is considered to be the first Messenger of Allah after the people of Adam had forgotten the very purpose of their existence and started to worship idols. The story of Nuh (may peace be upon him) is very interesting from his motivation to his people till the great flood in which the entire humanity drowned except for those who sought refuge on Nuh's boat. 

We will discuss the peculiar circumstances under which the messengers of Allah were sent to their people and what specific task given to some of the prophets of Allah in separate posts later.

Also read: Lineage of Prophets

Read More

Lineage of Prophets

Allah has sent chosen and pious people as His prophets to show the people the right path - the path chosen for them by the Allah Almighty. The prophets' lineage that commenced with Adam (AS) culminated with the last of the prophets Muhammad, may peace be upon him. In between some 124,000 prophets (including the two) came and showed the righteous path to the people of their communities, clans and tribes.

Each prophet came to show the right path to his people who had gone astray and were indulged in activities tangent to the teachings of Allah. In fact, many prophets came one after the other to the same people who kept disobeying the words brought to them by  the prophets or going astray when one prophet was gone.

While I will write about some the noble prophets as their mention appear in the Holy Koran and also in the previous holy books, herein under is the family tree of the prophets of Allah shpwing major and renowned names:

As can be seen that the major flow of prophets commences from the two sons of prophet Ibrahim (Abraham), prophets Ismail and Ishaq AS. Prophet Ismail, born from Hajira (Hager) the second wife  prophet Ibrahim has his descendants culminating in the prophet hood of Muhammad (MPBH). the prophet of Islam, while the prophets lineage from Prophet Ishaq, from Sarah, prophet Ibrahim's wife, terminates in the prophet hood of Isa (Issac) AS.

The prophet's lineage also show the placement of some of the important prophets like Prophets Nuh (Noah), Hoot (Hut) Lut (Lot), Musa (Moses), Yaqoob (Jacob), Yousaf (Joseph) and others.

In my next number of posts, I will write about some of these prominent prophets as their  mention appears in the Holy Koran.

Photos Pixabay | Family of Prophets

Read More