Website: www.aaiil.uk
The
Prophets who are not mentioned in the Holy Quran
Friday
Khutba by Dr Zahid Aziz,
for Lahore
Ahmadiyya UK, 18 November 2022
|
“Surely We have revealed to you as We revealed to Noah and the prophets after him, and We revealed to Abraham and Ishmael and Isaac and Jacob and the tribes, and Jesus and Job and Jonah and Aaron and Solomon, and We gave to David a scripture. And (We sent) messengers We have mentioned to you before and messengers We have not mentioned to you. And to Moses Allah addressed His word, speaking (to him) — messengers, bearers of good news and warners, so that the people may have no plea against Allah after the (coming of) messengers. And Allah is ever Mighty, Wise.” — ch. 4: An-Nisa, v. 163–165 |
اِنَّاۤ
اَوۡحَیۡنَاۤ
اِلَیۡکَ
کَمَاۤ اَوۡحَیۡنَاۤ
اِلٰی نُوۡحٍ
وَّ النَّبِیّٖنَ
مِنۡۢ بَعۡدِہٖ
ۚ وَ اَوۡحَیۡنَاۤ
اِلٰۤی اِبۡرٰہِیۡمَ
وَ اِسۡمٰعِیۡلَ
وَ اِسۡحٰقَ
وَ یَعۡقُوۡبَ
وَ الۡاَسۡبَاطِ
وَ عِیۡسٰی
وَ اَیُّوۡبَ
وَ یُوۡنُسَ
وَ ہٰرُوۡنَ
وَ سُلَیۡمٰنَ
ۚ وَ اٰتَیۡنَا
دَاوٗدَ
زَبُوۡرًا ﴿۱۶۳﴾ۚ وَ
رُسُلًا قَدۡ
قَصَصۡنٰہُمۡ
عَلَیۡکَ
مِنۡ قَبۡلُ
وَ رُسُلًا
لَّمۡ نَقۡصُصۡہُمۡ
عَلَیۡکَ ؕ
وَ کَلَّمَ
اللّٰہُ مُوۡسٰی
تَکۡلِیۡمًا
﴿۱۶۴﴾ۚ رُسُلًا
مُّبَشِّرِیۡنَ
وَ مُنۡذِرِیۡنَ
لِئَلَّا یَکُوۡنَ
لِلنَّاسِ
عَلَی اللّٰہِ
حُجَّۃٌۢ
بَعۡدَ
الرُّسُلِ ؕ
وَ کَانَ
اللّٰہُ
عَزِیۡزًا
حَکِیۡمًا ﴿۱۶۵﴾ |
|
“And certainly We sent messengers before you — among
them are those We have mentioned to you and among them are those We have not
mentioned to you …” — ch. 40, Al-Mumin, v. 78 |
وَ لَقَدۡ
اَرۡسَلۡنَا
رُسُلًا
مِّنۡ قَبۡلِکَ
مِنۡہُمۡ
مَّنۡ قَصَصۡنَا
عَلَیۡکَ وَ
مِنۡہُمۡ
مَّنۡ لَّمۡ
نَقۡصُصۡ
عَلَیۡکَ ؕ … |
The first set of verses I
have recited begins by telling us that all messengers of God received
revelation from God in the same manner, and it was in the same way that the
Holy Prophet Muhammad received revelation. Some twelve messengers are named
here and it is added that, in addition to these, there were other messengers
not mentioned in the Quran. The other verse which I recited repeats that there
were other messengers sent by God in addition to those whose names are
mentioned in the Quran. The Quran also tells us that prophets and messengers
were sent to each and every nation (ch. 10, v. 47, ch. 35, v. 24), just as the
Holy Prophet was a prophet and messenger of God. This means that there were so
many of them that all of them could not possibly be named in the Quran. The
reason for the appearance of so many messengers is given as “so that the people
may have no plea against Allah after the (coming of) messengers”. In other
words, no people in the world could say that God did not give them guidance.
Another reason why
many of the prophets could not be mentioned in the Quran is that it could only
mention those prophets that the Arabs of that time, in the land where the Quran
was revealed, had heard of. But by saying that there were prophets and messengers
in addition to these, it left the door open for future Muslims, when Islam
spread into other parts of the world outside Arabia, to recognise the great
founders of the religions of those countries as true messengers.
We all know that
Muslims are required by the Quran to believe in all prophets equally. Muslims
are described as follows: “And those who believe in Allah and His messengers
and make no distinction between any of them” (ch. 4, v. 152). This applies
also to the messengers not mentioned in the Quran, even though in their case it
is a matter of our own judgment to conclude that such and such a great
historical figure was one of these unmentioned messengers.
Just because their
present-day followers might believe in several gods, and revere their founders
to be more than just mortal human beings, does not reflect badly on their great
founders. We know from the Quran how the followers of the Israelite prophets,
including Jesus, deviated from the real teachings of their prophets. Their
prophets are not responsible for this and it does not detract from their high
status. This teaches us that the beliefs and the condition of the followers is
no reflection on their prophets. Even in case of us Muslims, the beliefs and
behaviour of some sections cannot be attributed to the Holy Prophet Muhammad.
During the life of
the Holy Prophet Muhammad, Muslims encountered Jews and Christians, and some
other related sects, in Arabia. Their prophets are explicitly mentioned in the
Quran along with some details of their histories. The Jews and Christians are
called “People of the Book” in the Quran because they possessed scriptures
which the Quran recognised as having been, originally, revealed by Allah to
their prophets.
When Muslims
expanded to countries outside Arabia, they encountered other religions whose
founders were not mentioned in the Quran. But from the very beginning Muslims
realised that the followers of these religions may also be in the category of
“People of the Book” if they possessed scriptures containing teachings of their
ancient sages. And Muslim realised that the founders of these religions must
have been prophets and messengers of Allah.
When Muslims
conquered Iran, about seven years after the death of the Holy Prophet, the
religion prevailing in Iran was Zoroastrianism, a very ancient religion. It is
named after its founder Zoroaster. Something of this religion was already known
to Muslims since Salman, a famous Companion of the Holy Prophet, was a Persian.
The Quran itself mentions “the Magians” (al-majūs) along
with the Jews and the Christians (ch. 22, v. 17). Magians are considered to be
the same as Zoroastrians, known as Parsis in the Indian subcontinent. It is
recorded in some ancient Muslim literature that the Holy Prophet Muhammad had
himself given instructions to Muslims that they must treat Zoroastrians as
“People of the Book” (The Preaching of Islam, by Sir T.W. Arnold, p.
207). Of course, Zoroaster is not mentioned in the Quran.
After Islam spread
in the Indian subcontinent, some Sufi saints recognised the Hindu religion and
its scriptures as being of Divinely-revealed origin. One of them was Mirza
Mazhar Jān-e-Jānān (1699–1780) who was a famous Sufi poet of
Delhi. He is recognized as one of the four pillars of eighteenth
century Urdu poetry. There is a collection of his letters that has been
published. He writes: “According to the verses ‘And there is not a people but a
warner has gone among them’ (ch. 35, v. 24) and ‘And for every nation there is
a messenger’ (ch. 10, v. 47), prophets and messengers were sent to the lands of
India, and the accounts of their lives are in their scriptures, and from
whatever knowledge about them which remains it appears that they had reached
the highest degrees of spiritual development. The broad mercy of God did not
forget the human needs of this vast country.” He goes on to add: “It is
well-known that before the coming of the Holy Prophet Muhammad messengers were
sent to every nation, and that nation was required to obey its messenger, and
not the messenger of another nation. But after the coming of our Messenger (the
Holy Prophet Muhammad) until the end of the world no one can disobey him.”
Then he says that
as regards previous religions: “the Quran tells us that ‘We sent messengers
before you — among them are those We have mentioned to you and among them are
those We have not mentioned to you’, and it is silent about the lives of many
prophets. Therefore we should not pass any judgment about the founders of other
religions who are not mentioned in the Quran. We can neither believe with
certainty that their followers are kafir and doomed to hell, nor can we
be sure that they will receive salvation. We must hold a favourable opinion
about them. … Without any strong evidence we must not easily call anyone as kafir”
(Maktubat Mirza Mazhar Jān-e-Jānān, published
Lahore, 1997, Letter no. 14, p. 132–133).
What he means is
that Hindus and followers of other pre-Islamic religions, who possessed
revealed scriptures, cannot be called kafir in the sense in which the Arab idol-worshippers are called kafir in the Quran, but rather, they are included in the category of the
People of the Book.
Another example of Muslims encountering a pre-Islamic religion was
provided by a Mughal general, Mirza Muhammad Haidar who led armies for the
Mughal emperors Babur and Humayun. This was almost 500 years ago. He wrote a
history of the Mughals in Persian entitled Tarikh-i-Rashidi, in which he mentions going to Tibet with his army and
meeting the local people there and talking to them about their customs and
religion. The local people were Buddhists. He writes that some histories say
that Buddha was one of the prophets who appeared in India. He also writes that
the local people told him that Buddha had prophesied the appearance of prophets
after him, the last of whom would have no father or mother. They told him:
“All the world will comprehend his
religion. When he is sent it will be necessary for the whole world to submit to
him, and blessed will he be who hastens to adopt his faith. I bequeath my own
religion in order that it may be handed down from generation to generation
until the blessed time of his appearance. … People should believe in him before
all other men.” (Tarikh-i Rashidi, English translation published 1895,
p. 415–416)
Their statement to
Mirza Haidar fulfills a claim made in the Quran. The Quran says:
“And when Allah made a covenant through
the prophets (with their followers): Certainly what I have given you of Book
and Wisdom — then a Messenger comes to you verifying what is (already) with
you, you shall believe in him, and you shall aid him. He said: Do you affirm
and accept My compact in this (matter)? They said: We do affirm. He said: Then
bear witness, and I (too) am a bearer of witness with you” (ch. 3, v. 81).
According to the
Quran, every prophet told his followers: A Prophet will appear in the future
who will verify me as being true, so when he appears it will be the duty of my
followers to believe in him and assist him in his mission.
To prove this
claim of the Quran factually and historically, and from the scriptures of
earlier religions, was a work undertaken by Maulana Abdul Haq Vidyarthi, a
great scholar and lifelong missionary of our Jamaat, who published his research
in the book Muhammad in World Scriptures. I mention this today, and have
chosen this topic for my khutba, because today is the 45th anniversary
of the Maulana’s death in Lahore. This day was a Friday in that year as well
(1977).
May Allah enable us to continue the
mission of the past elders of the Lahore Ahmadiyya Jamaat. — ameen.
Website: www.aaiil.uk