Belief in the Prophets

1. Belief in the Prophets Faith, belief, and morality

2. Nabuwwat = Prophethood • Prophet in modern dictionary: a person who speaks for God from divine inspiration • In Islamic terminology: A person chosen from the people of the world, whom Allah informs through vahiy the rules of His religion and then tells to spread the word to the rest of humanity

3. Rasul and Nabi • The Quran uses both words to describe the messengers, but there are differences in meaning of the two words. • Some of the messengers were Nabi only • Some of the messengers were both Nabi and Rasul

4. Rasul and Nabi • A messenger of Allah given a new shariah or law for his followers to abide by is a Rasul • A messenger not given any shariah or law is a Nabi • Every messenger is a Nabi, but not every messenger is a Rasul

5. Rasul and Nabi • A messenger is always a Nabi by birth, but doesn’t become a Rasul until he receives the message and declares it publicly • For example, Prophet Muhammed (SAW) was Nabi by birth, but did not become Rasul until the age of 40 when he proclaimed his prophethood. • The Rasul is higher in rank than Nabi

6. Rasul and Nabi • Believing in the all the prophets is one of the six pillars of faith in Islam • Allah tells us to believe in all the prophets, without excluding any of them • “The Messenger has believed in what was revealed to him from His angels and His books and His messengers (saying), ‘We make no distinction between any of His Messengers’ And they say ‘We hear and obey, we seek Your forgiveness, our Lord, and to You is the final destinatinon’ “ (2:285)

7. “Indeed, those who disbelieve in Allah and His messengers and wish to discriminate between Allah and His messengers and say: ‘we believe in some and disbelieve in others’ and wish to adopt a way in between – those are the disbelievers and truly, and We have prepared for the disbelievers a humiliating punishment” • Nisa 4:150, 151

8. Why We Needed Them Just as Allah sent the queen bee to the bee’s, he sent the prophets to us as a guide to the right path “It is He who sent forth among the unlettered an apostle of their own to recite to them His revelations, to purify them and to instruct them in the scriptures and wisdom” 62:2

9. 6 Characteristics of the Prophets • They were all humans • They were chosen by Allah • “Allah knows best whom to entrust with His message” 6:124 • They were all trustworthy and righteous in every way • Fetanet – this means their level of intelligence was much higher than ours. So much so that they were able to solve the worlds hardest problems over a cup of tea • They were protected from sinning • They wholly gave us the messages they received from Allah and taught us how to live our lives accordingly in perfection.

10. The number of Prophets • There are a total of 25 prophets mentioned in the Quran • Adam, Idris, Nuh, Hud, Salih, Lut, Ibrahim, Ismail, Ishak, Yakub, Yusuf, Suayb, Harun, Musa, Davud, Suleyman, Eyyub, Zulkifl, Yunus, Ilyas, Elyesa, Zekeriya, Yahya, Isa (AS) and Muhammed (SAW) • But according to a Sahih hadith, there were 124,000 prophets, 313 of them were Rasul (given shariah, or law) • However, since the Quran doesn’t give an exact number, some scholars have said it may be more

11. “Indeed, We have sent you with the truth as a bringer of good tidings and a warner. And there is no nation but that there had passed within it a warner” 35:24 • “And We have already sent messengers before you. Among them are those whose stories We have related to you. And it was not for any messenger to bring a sign (or verse) except by permission of Allah. So when the command of Allah comes, it will be concluded in truth, and the falsifiers will thereupon lose all.” 40:78

12. A brief look into the daily life of Prophet Muhammed (SAW) • To be clear: Ayse is going through all the prophets one by one with us, for this reason I am not going to go into detail about any of their lives. I am only going to give a small look into the live of Prophet Muhammed SAW

13. Prophet Muhammed (SAW) • Morning • He divided his day into 5 parts according to the 5 daily prayers • His day began with the fajr prayer. • In Medina, Abdullah b. UmmiMektum made the call to prayer and Prophet Muhammed would pray 2 rekahsunnah in his room and then come to the masjid for the farz portion of the prayer.

14. Morning • Everyone in Medina, except those who had very big reasons not to, came to the masjid every day for every prayer to pray behind Prophet Muhammed (SAW) • They would make zikr and pray until the sun reached a certain point in the sky (kirat) and then Prophet Muhammed would sit and talk with his followers. • These talks focused not only on religion, but the companions would ask his questions about history, family, their dreams, their problems, and he never left until everyone said what they needed to say. • Some people say he would stay there until duha prayer time – 9 or 10 am

15. Morning • According to a hadith, Prophet Muhammed said anyone who prays their morning (fajr) salat and then stays there until duha time and only speaks of kheir things, even if they have as much sins as the bubbles in the ocean, they will be forgiven (tirmizi, vitr, 15) • They used to call this “Prophet’s Sohbet” and they would typically just sit and listen to what he had to say, as he often spoke of his vahiy’s from Allah

16. After Duhanamaz • He would go home and ask if there was anything to eat for breakfast • If the answer was yes, they would eat. If no, he would say then I will fast today. • When they did eat, it was typically milk, dates and old bread. They never complained about the food they had and were never picky about what they ate. • Then he would perform kaylule

17. Dhuhr (ogle) • At this time, the Prophet would get ready to go the masjid for the prayer. If it was a Friday, he would get excited as if it were eid. He would take a nice shower, put on a new shirt, put on cologne, and would go the masjid earlier that day than any other of the week • They would pray, and then he would go and talk with those who recently became Muslim or those interested in Islam and would answer any questions they had

18. Asr (ikindi) • Took this time to thank Allah for all the things we take for granted on a daily basis. • After the Asr prayer, the tasbihat that they did was and still is longer than any other time of day (same with fajr) this is because that is when the Angels who protect and surround us switch shifts. • “There are two groups of angels one for the night time and one for the day time who switch their shifts during fajr and asrsalah times. When they get back to Allah, Allah asks them what his people were doing when they left them and they say “We left them while they were praying to you, and those around them were also praying to you” • And after every Asr prayer, he spent time with his wives, this is something he never ignored or stopped doing.

19. Maghrib (aksam) • Since qiyamah will happen after the maghrib prayer, Prophet Muhammed would always get ready before hand and wait for the prayer. He would complete his along with a 2-6 rekahewwabin prayer • Then his whole family would gather and they would have daily, family time. Talking about anything from health to the end of the world.

20. Isha’a (yatsi) • Prophet Muhammed would pray Isha’a at the masjid and then, whenever possible, would leave without talking to anyone to go rest. • Before sleeping, he would make dua. • Hz. Aisha said he would do this in the following way: He would blow on his hands and read the surahs of Ihlas, Felak and Nas then he would run his hands over every part of his body that he could reach • He repeated this 3 times

21. Other examples • Hz Ali said that he recommended him and Fatima to do the following before they went to sleep: When you climb into your bed, say Allahu Akbar 34 times, Subhanallah 33 times, and Alhamdulilah 33 times. Something of which they never stopped doing after that night. • Without there being an emergency, he stayed at home during the night

22. His nights • Hz. Aisha said he would pray until his feet swelled up at night • She once said to him “O Allah’s Rasul, Allah is going to forgive all your past and future sins. Why do you push yourself so much knowing this? And his response always was “Should I not be thankful servant to my Lord?”

23. He would ask for permission from his wife before getting out of bed to pray • One night, Hz. Aisha said he cried so much and so hard one night that she heard his cries until the fajr prayer when Bilal called the adhan. • When she asked him about it, he said how can I not cry when this was revealed to me • “Indeed, in the creation of the heavens and the earth and the alternation of the night and the day are signs for those of understanding. Who remember Allah while standing or sitting or lying on their sides and give thought to the creation of the heavens and the earth, saying “Our Lord You did not create this aimlessly, exalted are You, then protect us from the punishment of the fire” “Our Lord, whoever you admit into the fire – You have disgraced them, and for the wrongdoers there are no helpers. Our Lord, indeed we have heard a caller calling to faith, saying, believe in your Lord and we have believed. Our Lord, so forgive us our sins and remove from us our misdeeds and cause us to die with the righteous. Our Lord and grant us what You promised us through your messengers and do not disgrace us on the Day of Resurrection. Indeed, You do not fail in Your promise.” 3:190-194

24. He would always pray tahajjud and after that we would rest for a while, then wait for Hz. Bilal to call the adhan, but he always did so before imsak so everyone who wanted to fast and who haven’t gotten up for tahajjud could do so. Then like we spoke of before, Hz. Abdullah b. UmmiMektum would call everyone to prayer and his day would begin again.

25. The End • Next week: Belief in the after-life