PROPHETHOOD

PROPHETHOOD

Q.   The Qur-an says:

WA I(N)M-MIN UM-MATIN IL-LA KHALA FIHA NAZIR

(And there is no community but a warner has been sent down to it.)

On another place, it says:

WA LI-KUL-LI QAUMIN HAD

(And for every people there is [sent] a guide.)

The verses imply that some messenger or the other has been sent by Al-lah to every people or community. If so, were any prophets sent in India also?

  Yes, the foregoing verses do affirm that Al-lah has sent some warner or guide to every people. It is therefore quite likely that some prophets were sent down in India also.

Q.   Can it be said that the hindu deities lie Krishna and rama were also the prophets of Al-lah?

  No. They cannot be said to be His prophets. It is because prophethood was a special favour which Al-lah bestowed upon his chosen servants. We cannot, therefore call any one a Prophet of Al-lah until and unless we know it from the Shariah that Al-lah invested a particular person with such a distinction. If, in the absence of any authority from Shariah, we presume a non-prophet to be a Prophet of Al-lah simply because it suits our whims, we shall have to render account before Al-lah for such a wrong belief.

Let us understand like this: suppose we, in our misconception, begin to presume that a certain person is the viceroy of a king or his governor general, although he is not, we shall be adjudged guilty by the empire concerned for having wrongfully invested a person with powers that did not belong to him and for attributing wrong things to the king and his government.

So, from amongst the ancient people, we can believe only those personages as prophets of Al-lah whose prophethood is affirmed by the Shariah and who have been mentioned as such by the Holy Qur-an or the Hadith.

As regards religious divines of hindu and others we can only say that if they were upright in their beliefs and conduct, if their teachings did not go against the divine teachings and if they had also been instruments of guidance to people, there are chances that they were chosen prophets by Al-lah, but to insist that they were true prophets of Al-lah is to assert things that have no substance and is mere speculation.