Answer...

Answer: The last prophet is the Prophet of Islam, Muhammad (God’s blessings and peace be upon him and his progeny). Question: How many prophets are there? Answer: Their number is 124,000. From among them are Nuh (Noah), Ibrahim (Abraham), Musa (Moses) and ‘Isa (Jesus). These four prophets together with the Prophet of Islam are superior to the rest of mankind. Question: What is the difference between prophets and other human beings?

Answer: The difference is that the prophets receive direct revelation from God Almighty and are given commands either concerning their own affairs or commands to be proclaimed to other people. The rest of humanity do not receive such divine revelations. On the contrary, they are charged to follow the prophets. Question: How do we know that one who claims prophethood is telling the truth? Answer: We know the truthfulness of the claimant of prophethood by means of miracles.

Miracles consist of supernatural feats that a prophet performs which indicate that he is from God, since if he were not he could never perform such acts. Question: Give examples of miracles. Answer: For example: 1- Ibrahim (peace be upon him) was cast into the fire but did not get burnt. 2- Musa (peace be upon him) would throw down his staff and it would turn into a huge serpent. Then when he picked it up it would return to its original condition.

3- ‘Isa (peace be upon him) would heal the blind and lepers and by the will of God would bring the dead to life. 4- Muhammad (God’s blessings and peace be upon him and his progeny) split the moon into two and brought the Qur’an the like of which man has been incapable of producing. Question: How is it that man has been incapable of producing something like the Qur’an? Answer: The Qur’an itself has challenged mankind and invited him to bring forth something like itself.

“Say: If men and jinn should meet together to bring the like of this Qur’an, they could not bring the like of it, even if they came to the aid of one another” [17: 88]. And when they were incapable of producing the like of the whole Qur’an, they were challenged to produce only ten suras (chapters) like the suras in the Qur’an: “Bring you then ten forged suras like it…”[11: 13].

And when again they remained incapable, they were challenged to bring forth only one sura like a Qur’anic sura: “Then produce a sura like it”[2: 23].