Prophethood

Religious Studies A: AQA GCSE Religions, topic 4.2.1

Introduction to Prophethood

A prophet is a person who speaks the words of God. Muslims believe in many prophets.

Many of the prophets in the Hebrew and Christian Bibles are shared by Islam too.
E.g. Abraham (Ibrahim), Moses (Musa) and Elijah (Ilyas).
Muslims also believe that Jesus (Isa) was a prophet.

God sent Jibril to Muhammad when he was young to prepare him for his future role as a prophet.
Because Allah is so beyond human understanding, the prophets play an important role in helping mankind to understand God.

Three of the most important prophets are Adam, Ibrahim and Muhammad:

Muslims believe that Adam was the first prophet.
He was the first man (and Sufi Muslims believe he was created by God in his own image).
He is believed by some to have first built the Ka’aba, (House of God).

Ibrahim/Abraham is understood to be the ancestor of Muhammad.
Ibrahim was tested by God and proved his faith by being prepared to sacrifice his first son, Isma’il/Ishmael. It is through Isma'il’s line that Muhammad descends.
Ibrahim rejected polytheism and idolatry.
Many believe that Ibrahim and Isma'il rebuilt the Ka’aba on the place where it had originally been built by Adam.

All previous prophets prepared the way for Muhammad.
In Islamic tradition, Muhammad is the greatest and final prophet - ‘the seal of the Prophets’.
His teachings and practices in the Hadith are the basis of Islamic law.
He was born around 570CE in Mecca, and in the year 610, the angel Jibril gave him a message from Allah.
These revelations continued for the next 20 years. Eventually, these oral teachings were organised and have been written to form the Qur'an.

At the time of the first revelation, Muhammad was living in Mecca.
The local leaders were not interested in hearing Muhammad’s message of obedience, or belief in one God. He was forced to run away to Medina in the year 622.
The journey is known as the Hijrah (departure).
Muhammad was successful in Medina. He attracted many followers and built up a large army. They returned to Mecca and conquered it.
According to Islamic tradition, there were 360 idols in the Ka’aba and when Muhammad returned he destroyed all of them and made the Ka’aba a place to worship the one, God.