Pre-Islamic Arabian Prophets and the Final Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him): The Mecca Period (610-622)

By Farooq Mirza

 WHY WAS THE LAST PROPHET NEEDED?

Arabs: Islam's major sin is denying Allah. There are two common ways to deny Allah: by substituting idols for Allah or by being self-sufficient and ignoring Allah. Arabs were guilty of idol worship and self-sufficiency. Pre-Islamic Arab monotheists, called Hanifs, were descendants of Abraham an

• Language: English
• Publisher: Farooq Mirza
• Release date: Jan 9, 2025
• ISBN: 9798348360221

Book preview

THE BIBLICAL PROPHETS

IN THE QURAN

THE QURAN: IN AN EASY-TO-UNDERSTAND FORMAT

VOLUME 2

FAROOQ MIRZA

The First-Ever Quran Rendition

According to Specific Topics and Subject Matter

From

The Quran Foundation

Copyright © 2024 Farooq Mirza

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher, except for brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

DEDICATION

The seven-volume book series about the Quran is dedicated to the memory of Muhammad Asad, whose work, "The Message of the Qur’an," was the first-ever attempt at an idiomatic, explanatory rendition of the Quranic message in English. In my opinion, it is the best translation and commentary on the Holy Quran.

Muhammad Asad was born Leopold Weiss in July 1900 in Lviv, now Ukraine. He was the descendant of a long line of rabbis, a line broken by his father, who became a barrister. Asad himself received a thorough religious education that would qualify him to keep alive the family’s religious tradition. He left Europe for the Middle East in 1922 for what was supposed to be a short visit to an uncle in Jerusalem. There, he came to know the Arabs and was struck by how Islam infused their everyday lives with existential meaning, spiritual strength, and inner peace. Weiss then became, at the remarkably young age of twenty-two, a correspondent for The Frankfurter Zeitung, one of the most prestigious newspapers in Germany and across Europe. As a journalist, he traveled extensively, mingled with ordinary people, held discussions with Muslim intellectuals, and met heads of state in Palestine, Egypt, Transjordan, Syria, Iraq, Iran, and Afghanistan.

Back in Berlin from the Middle East, a few years later, Weiss underwent an electrifying spiritual epiphany—reminiscent of the experiences of some of the earliest Muslims—that changed his mind and his life. Out of the Quran spoke a voice greater than the voice of Muhammad, Weiss said. Thus, it was that Weiss became a Muslim. He converted in Berlin before the head of a small Muslim community in the city. He took the name Muhammad to honor the Prophet, and Asad—meaning lion—a reminder of his given name, Leopold, which is derived from the Latin word for lion.

Asad spent some six years in the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, where he studied Arabic, the Quran, and the Hadith—the traditions of the Prophet and Islamic history. He mastered the Arabic language not only through academic study but also by living with a tribe that spoke the Arabic dialect of the Holy Quran. At the age of eighty, after seventeen years of effort, he completed his life’s dream, for which he felt all his life had been an apprenticeship: a translation and exegesis, or tafsir, of the Quran in English: The Message of the Qur’an.

THE QURAN:

IN EASY-TO-UNDERSTAND FORMAT

The Quran, in its present form, is not arranged according to the chronological order in which the individual passages were revealed. There is a seemingly abrupt transition from subject to subject within the same chapter, causing confusion. The Quran, in its traditional form was meant for the common people to read daily in small installments, the word of God, and ponder.

The author of this book series has rearranged The Message of the Qur’an by Muhammad Asad according to the specific topics and subject matter. The seven-volume Quran series is a first-ever attempt to present the Quran according to the subject matter—a new paradigm in understanding the Quran. For example, the subject of divorce is discussed in the Quran in Chapters 2, 33, 58, 60, and 65. Compiling all the verses about divorce in one place gives the reader a quick reference and a comprehensive understanding. For scholars, lawyers, and anyone who needs to study a particular issue, it would be handy to have it arranged by subject matter.

The seven volumes series covers the entire Quran. The purpose of this work is not to convert you, preach to you, or present a public relations version of Islam. It aims to inform you about true Islam.

CONTENTS

Preface - The Continuation Of Divine Revelations

Part 1 - The Old Testament Prophets

Chapter 1 - God’s Judgment In This Life

Chapter 2 - Satan’s Rebellion

Chapter 3 - The Fall Of Adam And Eve And Cain And Able

Chapter 4 - Noah (Nuh In Arabic)

Chapter 5 - Abraham (Ibrahim In Arabic)

Chapter 6 - Isaac And Jacob

Chapter 7 - Lot (Lut In Arabic)

Chapter 8 - Joseph (Yusuf In Arabic)

Chapter 9 - Moses (Musa In Arabic)

Chapter 10 The Sage Al-Khadir

Chapter 11 - Samuel, King Saul, And David

Chapter 12 - Solomon And Queen Sheba

Chapter 13 - Elijah (Idris Or Ilyas In Arabic), 

Elisha (Al-Yasa), And Jonah (Yunus)

Part 2 - The New Testament Prophets And

The Unitarian Or Jewish Christianity

Chapter 14 - The House Of Imran, Zachariah, And John

The Baptist

Chapter 15 - Mary And Jesus

Chapter 16 - The Ministry Of Jesus Christ

Chapter 17 - The Problems With The Four Gospels

Chapter 18 - Jesus Of The Quran

Chapter 19 - The Death Of Jesus

Trinitarian Christianity In The Post-Jesus Era

Chapter 20 - Pauline’s Christianity

Chapter 21 - The Birth Of Trinity

Chapter 22 - The Quranic Rebuttal To Jesus Being

The Son Of God

Chapter 23 - Why Christians And Magians Among

The Unitarian Catagory

Chapter 27 - How Did Prophet Muhammad Treat Christians?

References

PREFACE

THE CONTINUATION OF DIVINE REVELATIONS

The second volume of this series contains all Quran quotes that refer to the Prophets before Prophet Muhammad, including the Old and New Testament Prophets. The Arabian Prophets (Hud, Salih, Ishmael, Shuayb, and Ayyub) are included in the third volume of the Quran series. The Quran does not differentiate between the Biblical and Arabian Prophets; this arbitrary division is only for description.

RASUL VERSUS NABI

When God communicates with a human being, that person is a prophet. The Arabic word for a prophet (nabi) is the same as in Aramaic and Hebrew, indicating its Semitic origin. The designation apostle (rasul) or messenger is applied to bearers of divine revelations, which comprise a new doctrinal system. Messenger includes Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad. However, a prophet (nabi) is one whom God has entrusted with the enunciation of ethical principles based on already-existing moral principles common to all divine revelations. Hence, every apostle is a prophet, but not every prophet is an apostle.

PRISTINE MONOTHEISM VERSUS THE ATTRIBUTION OF DIVINITY TO OTHERS

The common theme runs through all the stories in the Quran that stresses the intrinsic impossibility of reconciling belief in One God, whose omniscience and omnipotence embrace all that exists, with attribution of divine or semi-divine qualities and functions to anyone or anything else. For that purpose, God sent prophets to all people on the face of the Earth, from Adam to the last Prophet Muhammad. Islamic traditions say there were 124,000 such prophets, a symbolic figure suggesting a significant number.

UNIVERSAL DIVINE GUIDANCE

Thou art nothing but a warner, verily, We have sent thee with the truth, as a bearer, of glad tidings and a warner. There was never any community, but a Warner has [lived and] passed away in its midst. (35:23-24) Thus, Allah, the Almighty, the Wise, revealed [the truth] unto thee, [O Muhammad], and those who preceded thee. (42:3) And who believe in that bestowed from high upon you, [O Prophet], and that which was revealed before your time, for it is they who in their innermost are certain of the life to come! (2:4) And this, too, is a divine writ (the Quran), which We have bestowed from on high, blessed, confirming the truth of whatever there remains [of earlier revelations]. [This] so you may warn foremost of all cities and those who dwell around it. And those who believe in the life to come believe in this [warning], and they are always mindful of their prayers. (6:92)

Foremost of all cities (lit., the mother of all towns) is an epithet applied in the Quran to Mecca because it is the place where the first temple dedicated to One God was built (3:96) and became the Qiblah (direction of prayer). The expression all who dwell around it denotes all humanity. Every community and civilization has received prophetic guidance. God sent the prophets the message of joy, hope for all who listen, and warning for those who ignore its call.

Belief in all apostles constitutes the second article of the Islamic faith. Muslims believe in all the major Jewish and New Testament Prophets. This contrasts sharply with the narrow Jewish view of prophecy, where prophets only arise from their tribe. If prophets emerged among Gentiles, Jews were not God’s chosen people. This is one of the basis for Muhammad's rejection by Jews. Christian rejection of Prophet Muhammad is due to theological differences over the Trinity and Jesus' godhead.

THE CONTINUATION OF THE DIVINE REVELATION

And indeed, [even] before thy time, the apostles were given the lie, and they endured with patience all those charges of falsehood, and all the hurt done to them, until succor came unto them from Us, for there is no power that could alter [the outcome of] Allah’s promises. And some histories of those apostles are already known to you. (6:34) Indeed, [even aforetime] We sent forth Our apostles with all evidence of [this] truth; and through them, We bestowed revelation from on high, and [thus gave you] a balance [with which to weigh right and wrong], so that men might behave with equity. (57:25) [As for you, O [Prophet], nothing is being said to you, but what was told to all [of Allah’s] apostles before your time. (41:43)

Before thy time refers to one of the fundamental doctrines of the Quran: the historical continuity of divine revelation. The Prophet Muhammad was not Islam's founder. He did not start a new religion. In most stories in the Quran, the emphasis is on the continuation of divine revelations throughout humanity’s moral history. In addition, the emphasis is on the illustration of ethical principles derived from these stories. Unceasing divine guidance is manifested in a long succession of God-inspired prophets.

Life—so the Quran teaches us—is a continuous, organic process—and this law also applies to man’s religious experience in its cumulative sense. Thus, the religion of the Quran is better understood in the context of the great monotheistic faiths preceding it. These faiths culminate and are finalized in the universal teachings of Islam. Despite differences with earlier dispensations, the Quran is a continuation of Judaism and Christianity, with Muhammad being the last Prophet. In short, without Judaism or Christianity, there would have been no Islam. The following are all the Prophets mentioned in the Quran:

1.Adam, 2. Idris (Enoch), 3. Nuh (Noah), 4. Hud (Eber), 5. Salih (Salah), 6. Ibrahim (Abraham), 7. Lut (Lot), 8. Ismail (Ishmael), 9. Ishaq (Isaac), 10. Yaqub (Jacob), 11. Yusuf (Joseph), 12. Ayub (Job), 13. Shuayb (Jethro), 14. Musa (Moses), 15. Harun (Aaron), 16. Daud (David), 17. Sulayman (Solomon), 18. Yunus (Jonah), 19. Ilyas (Elijah), 20. Al-yasa (Elisha), 21. Zakariya (Zachariah), 22. Yahya (John), 23. Isa (Jesus), 24. Muhammad (peace be upon him)

DOES THE QURAN REFER TO THE BIBLE?

With a different perspective than previous scriptures, the Quran is a unique religious inspiration. It always gives an independent narrative for each Biblical prophet and never refers to the Bible. This is compared to the New Testament, which frequently quotes the Old Testament to bolster its message. The authors of this volume added the Biblical references in the explanatory notes for clarity.

THE MISSION OF MUHAMMAD

Like his prophetic predecessors, the Prophet was a religious reformer. Before Muhammad, Christians and other religious groups attempted to penetrate the wall of Arabian paganism without much success. God sent Prophet Muhammad to the pagans of Mecca to bring them back to the one true God. He also brought them back to a way of life that most of his contemporaries had forgotten or deviated from. Worship of one God was not the evolutionary emergence of monotheism from polytheism but a return to a forgotten past, to Noah and Abraham's faith. Prophet Muhammad is the last Prophet from Abraham's house, being the direct descendant of Ishmael, the oldest son of Abraham. Due to its universal teachings and textual incorruptibility, the Quran represents the culmination of all revelations. It offers the final, most ideal way to spiritual fulfillment.

PART 1

THE OLD TESTAMENT PROPHETS

Chapter 1

GOD’S JUDGMENT IN THIS LIFE

GRANT OF RESPITE

Now, if Allah took men [at once] to task for whatever [wrong] they committed [on earth], He would not leave a single living creature on its surface. However, He grants them respite for a term set [by Him]: [The end of their lives on earth]. When their term ends, then [they realize that] Allah sees all that is in [the hearts of] His servants. (35:45) Say: Unto Allah, who has willed upon Himself the law of grace and mercy. (6:12) My grace overspreads everything (7:156).

The Quran tells us that man’s life in this world is the first stage. The principle of man’s moral responsibility for all his conscious actions and behavior will be judged in the afterlife. In this earthly life, the God of grace and mercy grants respite to all sinners so they can reflect and reform their ways. The exceptional quality of God’s grace and mercy is further stressed in the forgiveness, graciousness, and bounteous mercy that sustains, protects, and rewards people.

WHEN AN ENTIRE COMMUNITY IS CORRUPT

But alas, among those generations [whom We destroyed] before your time, there were no people endowed with any virtue – [people] who would speak out against the [spread of] corruption on earth – except the few of them whom We saved [due to their righteousness]. Those bent on evildoing only pursued pleasures, which corrupted their whole being, and so lost themselves in sin. (11:116) And [bear in mind] there is no community which We will not destroy before the Day of Resurrection or chastise [even earlier if it proves sinful] with severe suffering: all this is laid down in Our decree. (17:58) For, thy Sustainer would never destroy a community for the wrong [beliefs alone] so long as its people behave righteously [towards one another]. (11:117) We would never destroy a community unless its people did wrong [to one another]. (28:59)

Suffering severe may befall them according to the immutable laws (His decree) God has laid down for His creations. The Quran reveals a forgiving and just judge. However, a strong emphasis on God’s mercy should not conjure a permissive deity. God’s mercy exists in dialectical tension with His justice, tempered by mercy for repentant sinners. However, an exception to this rule is when the entire community is sinful and corrupt.

VIOLATIONS OF HUMAN RIGHTS

The Quran further delineates the sin of violation of one's fellow man's rights (Huququl Ibad) as more repugnant in God's sight than wrong beliefs. God’s chastisement does not afflict people because their beliefs amount to shirk (attributing divine qualities to others). It afflicts them only if they persistently commit evil in their mutual dealings. They deliberately hurt other human beings by acting tyrannically toward them. The common theme of many stories narrated in this volume is a depiction of God’s judgment in this life on various evil communities.

WHEN IS DIVINE PUNISHMENT INITIATED?

1. JUDGMENT IS ONLY AFTER DIVINE GUIDANCE

Thy Sustainer would never destroy a community for its wrongdoing, so long as its people are still uninformed [of right and wrong]. For all shall be judged according to their [conscious] deeds – and thy Sustainer is not unaware of what they do. (6:131-132) Thy Sustainer would never destroy a community without having [first] raised an apostle who would convey unto them Our messages. (28:59) Every community has had an apostle. Only after their apostle has appeared [and delivered his message] is judgment passed on them, in all equity, and never are they wronged. (10:47) And how many prophets did We send to the people during the ancient times? But there has never been a prophet who came to them without them ridiculing him. [In the end], We destroyed them [even though they were] of greater might than these. As a result, the very image of those people of old became a thing of the past. (43:6-8) We have never destroyed any community [for its wrongdoing] unless a divine writ had [previously] been made known to it. [But remember] no community can ever forestall [the end of] its term - and neither can they delay [it]. (15:4-5)

God does not take people to task for any wrong they may have committed unless they are deliberately committed in contravention of a moral law already made clear to them by the prophets. Every community has had an apostle stresses the continuity of religious revelation throughout humanity’s history. It also stresses that no community, period, or civilization is left without prophetic guidance in the long run.

2. TRIAL THROUGH TRIBULATIONS AND GOOD TIMES

How many evildoing communities have I given rein for a while? But then I took it to task, for with Me is all journeys’ end! (22:48) We sent Our messages to people before your time, [O Prophet], and visited them with misfortune and hardship so they could humble themselves. Yet when the misfortune decreed by Us befell them, they did not humble themselves, but their hearts grew hard, for Satan had made all their doings seem good to them. When they had forgotten what they were told to take to heart, We threw open the gates of all [good] things until - even as they rejoiced in what they had been granted - We suddenly took them to task, and lo! They were broken in spirit, and [in the end], the last remnant of those folks bent on evildoing was wiped out. (6:42-45)

3. THE LAST WARNING AND FINAL PUNISHMENT

Moreover, We would never chastise [any community for the wrong they may do] before We have sent an apostle [to them]. After [this has been done, and] it is Our will to destroy a community, We give Our last warning to those who have lost themselves entirely in pursuit of pleasure. They [continue to] act sinfully. The sentence [of doom] passed on the community takes effect, and We break it to smithereens. None has the like of thy

Sustainer’s awareness and insight into His creatures’ sins. (17:15-17) And then, when they [clearly] beheld Our punishment, they said: We have come to believe in One God, and we have renounced all beliefs to ascribe a share in His divinity! But their attaining faith after seeing Our punishment could not benefit them. Such is Allah's way that has always been obtained for His creatures. So, then and there, lost were they who denied the truth. (40:84-85)

The way of God or Sunnat Allah is the Quranic term for the totality of natural laws instituted by the Creator. This is the law that faith has no spiritual value unless it arises from genuine, inner enlightenment.

4. DESTRUCTION OF GUILTY AND SAVING OF THE RIGHTEOUS

We destroyed people like you [in the past]. Who would be willing to take it to heart? [They were genuinely culpable]. All [the evil] they ever did was revealed in the [ancient] books of [divine] wisdom. (54:51-52) In the end, We made good unto them Our Promise, and We saved them and all whom We willed [to save], and We destroyed those who had wasted their selves. [O men!] We have now bestowed upon you from high a divine writ containing all that you should bear in mind, will you not use your reason? (21:9-10)

The ancient revealed scriptures or books of (divine) wisdom (az-zubur) had made the meaning of good and evil clear to them. Still, they willfully disregarded or even consciously rejected that teaching. All those whom God did intend to save are believers; examples of being saved include Noah and his followers, Moses and Israelites, Lot and some of his family, Prophet Salih Hud, Shuayb, and others.

DIFFERENT MODES OF PUNISHMENT

[When Our chastisement befell them], they became wanderers on the face of the earth, seeking refuge. (50:36) Some of them, We let loose a deadly storm of wind, and a [sudden] blast overtook some; and some of them, We caused to be swallowed by the earth: and some of them, We caused to drown. And not Allah wronged them, but they wronged themselves. (29:40)

THE UNPREDICTABILITY OF DIVINE PUNISHMENT

Can then, they who devise evil schemes ever feel sure that Allah will not cause the earth to swallow them suddenly, or that suffering will not befall them without their perceiving whence [it came]? - or that He will not take them to task [suddenly] during their comings and goings, without them being able to elude [Him], or take them to task through gradual decay? And yet your Sustainer is most compassionate, a dispenser of grace! (16:45-47) And how many a [rebellious] community We had destroyed, with Our punishment coming by night, or at noontide when they were resting! And when Our sentence came upon them, they had nothing to say for themselves and could only cry, We were wrongdoers! (7:4-5)

The above passages refer to the unpredictability of divine punishment. It could strike suddenly when people feel secure and at ease and are unaware of any danger that may threaten them. By evil schemes, systems of God-denying philosophy and perverted morality are implied. Gradual decay refers to a protracted disintegration of ethical values, power, civic cohesion, happiness, and life. Your Sustainer is most compassionate, seeing that He offers guidance through His prophets gives you time to reflect and mend your ways before you do irreparable harm to yourselves.

GOD DID NO WRONG; THEY WRONGED THEMSELVES

This account of the [fate of those ancient] communities, some of the remaining, and some [extinct like] a field mowed down, We convey unto you [as a lesson for humankind]. For, We did no wrong to them, but it was they who wronged themselves. And when thy Sustainer’s judgment came to pass, those deities they invoked instead of Allah proved to be of no avail to them. This brought them no more than utter perdition. And such is thy Sustainer’s punishing grasp whenever He takes to task any community given to evildoing: His punishing grasp is grievous, severe! (11:100-102) To those [earlier] communities, some of their stories We [now] relate unto you. There indeed came apostles of their own with all evidence of the truth. But they would not believe in anything they had once given the lie. Thus, Allah seals the hearts of those who deny the truth. In most of them, We found no [inner] bond with anything right, and most were found to be iniquitous indeed. (7:101-102)

The Quran describes God’s punishment (as well as God’s reward) for man’s doings and not an arbitrary act of God. God sets a seal upon the hearts of men for their sins.

NO ARBITRARY PUNISHMENT

Before [We condemn them to] that supreme suffering, [in the afterlife] We shall most certainly let them taste of suffering closer at hand, [in this world] so that they could [repent and] mend their ways [and return to righteousness]. (32:21) Have they never traveled about the earth and beheld what happened to [deniers of