Prophets in Islam (Arabic: ِٱلْأَنۢبِيَاءُ فِي ٱلْإِسْلَام, romanized: al-ʾAnbiyāʾ fī al-ʾIslām) are individuals who were sent by God to various communities in order to serve as examples of ideal human behavior and to spread God's message on Earth. Some prophets are categorized as messengers (Arabic: رُسُل, romanized: rusul, sing. رَسُول rasūl), those who transmit divine revelation through the intercession of an angel. Muslims believe that many prophets existed, including many not mentioned in the Quran. The Quran states: "There is a Messenger for every community".[1][2] Belief in the Islamic prophets is one of the six articles of the Islamic faith.[3]
Muslims believe that the first prophet was also the first human being, Adam, created by Allah. Many of the revelations delivered by the 48 prophets in Judaism and many prophets of Christianity are mentioned as such in the Quran but usually in slightly different forms. For example, the Jewish Elisha is called Alyasa', Job is Ayyub, Jesus is 'Isa, etc. The Torah given to Moses (Musa) is called Tawrat, the Psalms given to David (Dawud) is the Zabur, the Gospel given to Jesus is Injil.[4]
The final and most important prophet in Islam is Muhammad ibn ʿAbdullāh, whom Muslims believe to be the "Seal of the Prophets" (Khatam an-Nabiyyin, i.e. the Seal of the Prophets), to whom the Quran was revealed in a series of revelations (and written down by his companions).[5] Muslims believe the Quran is the sole divine and literal word of God, thus immutable and protected from distortion and corruption,[6] destined to remain in its true form until the Last Day.[7]
Although Muhammad is considered the last prophet, some Muslim traditions also recognize and venerate saints (though some modern schools, such as Salafism and Wahhabism, reject the theory of sainthood).[8]
In Islam, every prophet preached the same core beliefs, the Oneness of God, worshipping of that one God, avoidance of idolatry and sin, and the belief in the Day of Resurrection or the Day of Judgement and life after death. Prophets and messengers are believed to have been sent by God to different communities during different periods in history.
In Islam there is a tradition of prophetic lineage, particularly with regard to the prophet Abraham (Ibrahim) who had many prophets in his lineage - Jesus ('Isa), Zakariyyah, Muhammad, David (Dawud), etc. - through his sons Ismael and Isaac.