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HOW
MANY PROPHETS HAVE BEEN SENT TO
MANKIND? AND
WHY WAS NO PROPHET RAISED FROM AMONG
WOMEN?
Prophets
were raised and sent to the whole of
mankind in different lands and at
different times. One version of a
hadith puts the number of prophets
sent to mankind as 124,000 (Ibn
Hanbal, Musnad, 5, 169); another
puts the number at 224,000. Both of
these versions, however, should be
critically evaluated according to
the science of Hadith. Besides,
whether the number was 124 or 224
thousand is not important. What is
essential is that no land, people or
period was neglected; prophets
were sent to all. The Qur’an says:
There
never was a people without a
Warner having lived among them’
(35:24)
We
would never visit our wrath
(chastise any community) until
We had sent a Messenger to
give warning’ (17:15)
To
punish a people for any wrong they
may do without their being warned
beforehand by a prophet from God is
contrary to His Glory and Grace. The
warning precedes responsibility
which may be followed by reward or
punishment: So anyone who has done
an atom’s weight of good, shall
see it. And anyone who has done an
atom’s weight of evil, shall see
it (99:7-8). If a people have not
been sent any Warner, they will not
know what is good and evil, and so
will not be chastised for it.
However, since every individual will
be called to account for good and
evil deeds, we may infer that to
every people has been sent an
Messenger: For We assuredly sent
amongst every people a messenger
with (the command), ‘Serve God and
eschew evil’ (16:36).
The
prophets were not, as some people
mistakenly suppose, raised only in
the Arabian Peninsula. Such a claim
is contrary to the teachings of the
Quran and is not based upon any
evidence. In fact, we do not even
know all of the prophets who were
raised in the Arabian Peninsula,
let alone in other places of the
world. Whether they were 124 or 224
thousand, we know for certain only
28, and the prophethood of three out
of these 28 is not wholly certain.
The Quran gives us the names of
all 28, from Adam, the first, to
Muhammad, the last, upon them be
peace. Nor can we say with
confidence where these 28 emerged.
It is supposed that the tomb of
Adam and the place of his reunion
with Eve is Jiddah, but this
information is not certain and
sound. We do not know by any means
where the very first prophet carried
out his mission. By contrast, we do
know a little about the location
of Abraham: We know that, at some
time, he was in some part of
Anatolia, Syria and Babylon. Lot was
associated with the people of
Sodom and Gomorrah, around the Dead
Sea; Shu’ayb with Madyan, and
Moses with Egypt. Yahya (John the
Baptist) and Zakariyya (Zechariah)
with Mediterranean
countries-probably they may have
crossed to Anatolia, since
Christians link Mary and Jesus with
Ephesus. But these associations are
not certain and not based upon any
strong evidence.
We
also know the names of some of the
other prophets sent to the Israelite
peoples, but we do not know the
names of any others, nor where they
appeared. Moreover, because their
teachings have been distorted and
lost over time, it is quite
impossible for us to say anything
about who those prophets were and
where they were sent.
There
may be many religions once of Divine
origin which have become distorted
and lost their truth. That is why we
cannot definitely say that such and
such persons were sent as prophets
to such and such places. We may
speculate that Confucius, Buddha (or
perhaps even Socrates?) were
prophets, but it can be only
speculation. Let us be clear on
this: we are not saying that they
were prophets. What the history of
religions tells us about those men
is not satisfactory, and based
upon information gathered from
different sources. However, it is
known that at the time Confucius and
Buddha lived, their teachings
influenced great numbers of people.
Today, what is practiced by their
followers-no doubt because of
distortions in the original
teachings-does not appeal to sense
and nature; rather it is extremely
unnatural: who can be attracted to
the sanctification of animals, or
the extremes of asceticism and sense
deprivation, or to such customs as
the cremation of wives with their
deceased husbands?
Of
Socrates, some have said that he was
a philosopher under the influence of
Judaism, but there is no
documentary evidence to support
such a claim. Words attributed to
Socrates by Plato imply that he
(Socrates) was ‘inspired’ from a
very early age to ‘instruct’
people in true understanding and
true belief. But it is not clear
that such words are correctly
attributed, nor is it clear what
exactly these words were understood
to mean. Only this much is
reliable-that Socrates taught in
an environment and in a manner
which supports the use of reason.
Let
us again stress that we are not
saying that these ancient teachers
were indeed prophets. To say that
someone is a prophet when he is not
is kufr, an unbelief as grave as
refusing to believe in a true
prophet. We say only that it may
perhaps have been so, given the
hadith that mentions either 124 or
224 thousand prophets as having
appeared in all parts of the
world. In the light of this hadith,
the findings of recent studies of
religious beliefs and practices in
different lands are more easily
understood.
In
particular, the observations of
Professor Mahmud Mustafa on two
tribes of primitive Africans confirm
what has been said above. He remarks
that the Maw-Maws believe in God
and call him Mucay. This God is one
and only, and acts alone in His
deeds. He does not beget nor is
begotten. He has no associate and
no partner. He is not seen or
sensed, but only known through His
works. He dwells high up in the
heavens, and ordains everything from
there. That is why the Maw-Maws
raise their hands when praying.
Another tribe, the Neyam-Neyam,
expresses similar themes. There is
one God who decrees and ordains
everything. What He says is
absolute. It is He who makes
everything in the forest move
according to His will, He who sends
thunderbolts against those He is
angry with.
As
is obvious, the general concept of
God ascribed to by these tribes is
similar, certainly comparable, to
what we find in the Quran.
Certainly the creed of the Maw-Maws
comes very close to the content of
the sura al-Ikhlas in the Quran.
How
could these primitive tribes, worlds
apart and removed from
civilization and from the influence
of the prophets known to us, come to
so pure and sound a concept of
God? This reminds us of the Quranic
verse which refers explicitly to
every people, none being excluded:
‘For every people there is a
messenger. When their messenger
comes, the matter is judged between
them with justice, and they are not
wronged’ (10:47).
Professor
Adil, from Kirkuk in Iraq, a
mathematician of Riyadh University,
when I met him in 1968, spoke of the
many native American Indians he had
met whilst studying for his Ph.D. in
the U.S.A. He had been struck by how
many of them believe in One God who
never eats and drinks nor is
constrained by time; He rules and
governs all things in the universe,
everything without exception being
under His sovereignty and dependent
on His will. They also referred to
some of God’s attributes that He
has no partner, and if He did, there
would surely be conflicts between
the partners. How does one
reconcile the alleged ‘primitiveness’
of such peoples with such loftiness
in their concept of God? It
certainly seems that true Messengers
conveyed these truths to them,
truths still present in what remains
of soundness in their actual,
present beliefs. As the original
Message was passed down the
generations it may have suffered
slight, gradual alterations until it
became confused and obscured.
In
sum, the Quran, and history and
present reality confirm that God has
chosen and sent prophets to every
people in different parts of the
world, though we only know for
certain the exact places of four of
them, and though we do not know for
certain their exact number.
Why
was no prophet raised from among
women?
God
sent to every nation Messengers from
among their own people. Without
exception, these prophets were
raised from among the men, never
from among the women. The
overwhelming consensus of scholars
of the Law and Tradition among the
Sunnis is that no woman has been
sent as prophet. Except a
questionable, even unreliable
tradition that Mary and the wife of
the Pharaoh, who, although married
to one of the most cruel tyrants and
obstinate unbelievers in human
history, believed in God in utmost
sincerity, there is no Quranic
authority, nor any in Hadith, that a
woman was sent to her people in the
rank or role of a prophet. And
certainly this is no argument that
God’s revelation of religion for
His human creatures has for that
reason been lacking in some way or
defective.
God
the All-Mighty created all entities
in pairs. Even things, the inanimate
part of creation, function according
to principles and forces in
pairs-like positive and negative,
for example. This is true of every
creation, viewed as microcosm or
macrocosm. If the minute particles
which constitute atoms were not held
apart by a subtle balance of paired,
opposite charges, the nucleus would
explode or implode. The human being,
also constituted of atoms, is the
balancing term between the micro and
macrocosms. Man was created to be as
the steward of this creation and is
fitted to it: what is true of the
universe is true of man, as well.
In other words, human beings are
also created in pairs, male and
female, and there is complex
relation between them of
attraction and repulsion. While in
one of them balance is towards
softness, weakness and
compassion; in the other the
balance is towards strength, force
and competitive toughness. It is so
that they may come together and
establish the harmony of the
family unit-just as, in the micro
and macro universe, there is a
harmony between atoms and celestial
bodies.
Today
the issue of gender has been
inflamed to such an extent that some
people have gone beyond all bounds
of sense and experience and refuse
to acknowledge the very real
differences between male and female;
some even attempt to make out that
men and women are in all respects
alike and equal. The issue has
therefore become vulnerable to
ridicule, and when over-presented
and over-stated, has become a source
of much misery in individual
lives. Where in the most ‘modern’
lifestyle, the woman has forsaken
her real identity in order to
imitate the characteristics and
functions of the man, family life
has completely eroded: children are
sent out to nursing centers or
boarding schools, the parents being
now too preoccupied as ‘individuals’
in their own, separate
self-indulgence to be parents. This
violence against nature and culture
has destroyed the home as a place
of balance between authority and
love, as a focus of security and
peace.
God
the Wise ordained some principles
and law in the universe, and created
human beings therein with an
excellent and lofty nature. With
regard to physical existence, the
man is considerably stronger and
more capable than the woman, and
plainly constituted to strive and
compete, without needing to, for
physical reasons, withdraw from the
struggle. The woman is plainly not
so constituted. Because of the
menstrual period (which can be
difficult, even painful, and
sometimes last up to 15 days), and
the necessary confinement before
and after childbirth, the woman
cannot always pray and fast. Nor can
she be continually available for
public duties with the same degree
of presence and commitment as can
the man. How, if the woman is also a
mother, can she, with a baby in her
lap lead and administrate armies,
make life and death decisions,
sustain and prosecute a difficult
strategy against an enemy? The role
of a prophet is to give the lead to
mankind in every aspect of social
and religious life and to do so
without pause or hesitation for as
long as God wills. That is why
prophethood is impossible for
woman. If the man were the
child-bearer prophethood would have
been impossible for him too. The
Prophet Muhammad, upon him be peace,
points to this fact when he
describes women as those who cannot fulfill
the religious obligations
totally and cannot realize some of
them (Sahih al-Bukhari, ‘Hayd,’
6).
A
prophet is an exemplar, a model for
conduct, therefore a human being
in every respect-so that people do
not have the excuse that they are
required to follow a way which is
beyond the powers of human beings.
As for the matters that relate
exclusively to women, they are
guided through the teaching of the
women in the household of the
prophets.
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