The Prophets of Allah (peace be upon them)

The Prophets of Allah (peace be upon them)

Did you know?

1.         There are 25 prophets mentioned in Quran by name

2.         All prophets, mentioned in Quran, who came after Prophet Abraham (Ibrahim -     peace be upon him) were from his offspring

3.         Various prophets were given revelation

            3.1       Abraham (Ibrahim - peace be upon him) - The Scrolls

            3.2       Moses (Moosa - peace be upon him) - The Torah

            3.3       David (Dawood - peace be upon him) - The Zaboor

            3.4       Jesus ('Eesa - peace be upon him) - The Injeel

            3.5       Muhammad (peace be upon him) - Quran

4.         Ebrahim (peace be upon him) had 2 sons who were both Prophets - Ismaeel and Ishaq (peace be upon them both)

5.         Ebrahim  (peace be upon him) was commanded to sacrifice his only son at the     time, Ismaeel (peace be upon him) at a place near Mecca (then called Becca).  Allah rewarded him for his sincerity and commitment and his son was spared. A ram was slaughtered instead.

6.         Ebrahim and Ismaeel (peace be upon them both) built the Ka'bah at Mecca - this was the first house of worship. The pilgrimage was declared thereafter, a ritual was is still being upheld today.

7.         Prophet Yusuf was the grandson of Ishaq and the son of Ya'qoob  (peace be         upon them all)

8.         Ya'qoob (peace be upon him) is also known as Israeel. He had 12 sons who are    the Bani Israeel. Yusuf (peace be upon him) was one of the Bani Israeel

9.         Moosa (peace be upon him) is a descendent of the Bani Israeel through Imran, a son of Ya'qoob (peace be upon him)

10.       Moosa (peace be upon him) was raised in Egypt by the Pharoah

11.       Moosa (peace be upon him) had a brother, Haroon (peace be upon him), who       was also a prophet

12.       Moosa (peace be upon him) led the Bani Israeel out of Egypt but he died before    he could enter the Holy Land

13.       Dawood (peace be upon him) slew Goliath. He was later to become king

14.       Dawood (peace be upon him) had a son, Sulayman (peace be upon him) who       was also a prophet and a king

15.       Sulayman (peace be upon him) were blessed with special gifts such as immense wisdom, the wind was made subservient to him and he could control the jinn.

16.       Zakariyyah (peace be upon him) was prophet and the father of a prophet, Yahya (peace be upon him)

17.       Zakariyyah (peace be upon him) was already infirm and his wife barren when       Allah answered his prayer and granted him a son, Yahya (peace be upon him)

18.       Maryam (peace be upon her) was born after her father had passed away. She      was raised by Zakariyyah (peace be upon him) and she was devout to Allah.

19.       Maryam (peace be upon her) immaculately conceived through the command of   Allah "Be" and she gave birth to Jesus ('Eesa -peace be upon him) while she was     still a virgin.

20.       Allah had chosen to create Adam (peace be upon him) without the involvement     of a man or a woman while He, Allah, created Eve (Hawa - peace be upon her)    from a male and no female. The third type of creation was that Allah created   'Eesa without a male and only a female. The rest of humanity was created through both a male and a female.

21.       'Eesa (peace be upon him) was blessed in that he spoke while in the cradle and    later on he performed various miracles by the permission of Allah.

22.       The Jews plotted to kill 'Eesa (peace be upon him) but Allah saved him and he      ascended to heaven to return close to the end of time i.e. 'Eesa (Jesus - peace       be upon him) was neither crucified, nor did he die but Allah took him into heaven.

23.       Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) is the final messenger and a      descendent of Ibrahim (peace be upon him) through the lineage of Ismaeel      (peace be upon him)

24.       Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) received the final revelation Quran, in   the Arabic language, over a period of 23 years. Quran is the most recited book in        the world and the only book that is memorised in its entirety by millions of people across the globe.

25.       Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) is the final messenger.

Pride

Islam is a religion of equality, of balance and justice.

We are all well aware of certain sayings of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ regarding pride and how it will prevent us from entering Jannah - Allah protect us. We oppress when we should uplift and then we still don't really see ourselves as oppressors. Racism is a "natural" thing because most of us have pride which makes us believe we are different, we are better, we are superior. Yet we will deny this. 

Many people question "how can there be a God when there is so much suffering" or they question the mercy of Almighty God. The answer lies in our hands since the Almighty Allah has given us the tools to balance the scales in this world. Our failure or rather our lack of intent and effort to balance the scales will indeed impact our scales on the Day of Recompense - May Allah protect us.

But in South Africa our problem is racism. We have been trained well by our colonial masters that we have the "solutions" but we take little or no time to understand the problems, concerns and plight of the downtrodden and lesser-fortunate. So when these people don't conform to our ideals we call them every bad name under the sun and we despise them. We look at the rest of Africa and we say that Africans cannot rule, Africans are corrupt but we look no further to understanding the real facts of plunder and rape of the natural resources of this continent. So, we look down on others - it's called pride. Pride is something that will prevent us from smelling the fragrance of paradise.

We look at crime and we think "black". We look at "corruption" and we think "black" because we have failed in our responsibility to be just. We see vandalism and we think the worst of these people and yet we forget the shortcomings in our own communities that are not living in poverty and squalor.  Are we not a community who are wasteful in much that we do even the water we use for ablution? Do we not litter while cleanliness is an important part of our faith? We have not lived up to the ideals of Islam yet we look down at others and their actions while they don't have Islam.
Those who have gone into these downtrodden communities and have taken to them Islam and with it a means of surviving have raised their levels of self-esteem and a sense of belonging. 

We are all at different levels in our lives but what we have of this world is not a means to set us apart but rather a means to share and care. Our concern must be that we have not adopted a sense of "I am better than him ..." which are the words of Iblees as related in Quran. Many will scoff with words like "but they are ....." or "no, I am not a racist, but .... " but we need to do some serious introspection lest our racism is exposed on that Great Day for racism is pride and pride is a most serious shortcoming.

It is better to be concerned that one is a racist and work against being a racist imploring Allah Almighty to cleanse our hearts than to believe one is not a racist while racism is deeply rooted in one's heart. We pray Allah cleanse us and that he protects our thoughts and tongues from any form of racism.

PS! Neither call someone a "kafir" nor a "kaffir" - it's not appropriate.