Faith in God�s Prophets

Faith in God's Prophets/Maulana Maududi

In the last chapter we explained that God's Messengers had been raised among every people, and that they all brought essentially that same religion � Islam � which the Prophet Muhammad (blessings of Allah and peace be upon him) propagated. In this respect all the Messengers of God stand on a par with each other. If a man belies any one of them, he, as it were, belies all, and if a man affirms and believes in one of them, he must and ought to affirm all. The reason is simple. Suppose ten men make one and the same statement; if you admit one of them to be true, you ipso facto admit the remaining nine as true, and if you belie any one of them, by implication you belie all of them. It is for this reason that in Islam it is necessary to have implicit faith in all the Prophets of God. One who does not believe in a particular Prophet would be a Kafir, though he may profess faith in all the other Prophets.

Tradition has it that the total number of Prophets sent to different peoples at different times is 124,000. If you consider the life of the world since it was first inhabited and the number of different peoples and nations that have been on it, this number will not appear too great. We have to positively believe in those of the Prophets whose names have been mentioned in the Qur'an. Regarding the rest, we are instructed to believe that all the Prophets sent by God for the guidance of mankind were true.

Thus we believe in all the Prophets raised in India, China, Persia, Egypt, Africa, Europe and other countries of the world, but we are not in a position to be definite about a particular person outside the list of Prophets named in the Qur'an, whether or not he was a Prophet, for we have not been told anything definite about him. Nor are we permitted to say anything against the holy men of other religions. It is quite possible that some of them might have been God's Prophets, and their followers corrupted their teachings after their demise, just as the followers of Moses and Jesus (peace be upon them) have done. Therefore, whenever we express any opinion about them, it should be about the tenets and rituals of their religions; as for the founders of those religions, we will remain scrupulously silent, lest we should become guilty of irreverence towards a Prophet.

All the Prophets of God have been deputed by Him to teach the same straight path of Islam'.  In this sense there is no difference between Muhammad and other Prophets (blessings of Allah and peace be upon them all), and we have been ordered to believe in all of them alike. But in spite of this equality, there are the following three differences between them:

1.The Prophets of the past came to certain people for certain periods of time, while Muhammad (blessings of Allah and peace be upon him) has been sent for the whole world and for all time to come5. (5 This point has been discussed in detail in Chapter Three.)

2.The teachings of those Prophets have either disappeared altogether from the world, or whatever of them remains is intermingled with many erroneous and fictitious statements. For this reason, even if anyone wishes to follow their teachings, he cannot do so. In contrast to this, the teachings of Muhammad (blessings of Allah and peace be upon him), his biography, his discourses, his way of living, his morals, habits and virtues, in short, all the details of his life and work, are preserved. Muhammad (blessings of Allah and peace be upon him), therefore, is the only one of the whole line of Prophets who is a living personality, and in whose footsteps it is-possible to follow correctly and confidently.

3.The guidance imparted through the Prophets of the past was not complete.  Every Prophet was followed by another who effected alterations and additions in the teachings and injunctions of his predecessors and, in this way, the chain of reform and progress continued. That is why the teachings of the earlier Prophets, after the lapse of time, were lost in oblivion. Obviously there was no need to preserve earlier teachings when amended and improved guidance had taken their place. At last the most perfect code of guidance was imparted to mankind through Muhammad (blessings of Allah and peace be upon him) and all previous codes were automatically abrogated, for it is futile and imprudent to follow an incomplete code when the complete code exists. He who follows Muhammad (blessings of Allah and peace be upon him) follows all the Prophets, for whatever was good and eternally workable in their teachings has been embodied in his teachings. Whoever, therefore, rejects and refuses to follow Muhammad's (blessings of Allah and peace be upon him) teachings, and chooses to follow some other Prophet, only deprives himself of that vast amount of useful and valuable instruction and guidance which is embodied in Muhammad's (blessings of Allah and peace be upon him) teachings, which never existed in the books of the earlier Prophets and which was revealed only through the Last of the Prophets.

This is why it is incumbent on each and every human being to have faith in Muhammad (blessings of Allah and peace be upon him) and follow him alone. To become a true Muslim (a follower of the Prophet's way of life) it is necessary to have complete faith in Muhammad (blessings of Allah and peace be upon him) and to affirm that:

(a)      He is a true Prophet of God;

(b)     His teachings are absolutely perfect, free from any defect or error; and

(c)      He is the Last Prophet of God. After him no Prophet will appear among any people till the Day of Judgement, nor is any such personage going to appear in whom it would be essential for a Muslim to believe