النبوّة العامّة

GENERAL PROPHETHOOD

---

2. Imam Ali (AS) said, ‘Allah, Blessed and most High, sent MuÎammad (SAWA) with the truth to bring out His servants from worshipping His creatures into worshipping Him, from the covenants made with His creatures to His covenants, from obedience to His creatures to obedience to Him, and from being under the rule of His creatures to His rule.’
[al-Kafi, v. 3, p. 386, no. 586]

3. تزكيةُ الأخلاق

3. Purifying Morals

3. The Prophet (SAWA) said, ‘I was sent to complete the noble morals virtues.’
[Kanz al-`Ummal, no. 31969]

4. The Prophet (SAWA) said, ‘Verily I was sent to complete good morals.’
[al-Tabaqat al-Kubra, v. p, p. 193]

5. Imam Ali (AS) said, ‘So He sent His messengers among them and He sent prophets one after another to help lead them to the covenant of their innate nature, and they remind them of His blessings that they have forgotten. They show them proofs through propagation, they awaken for them the treasures of their intellects, and they show them the signs of their own potential.’
[Nahj al-Balagha, Sermon 1]

4. رفعُ الاختلاف

4. Lifting Differences

6. Imam Ali (AS) said, ‘Look at the various favours of Allah upon them, that He deputed towards them a prophet who got them to pledge their obedience to Him, and made them unite at his call.
[Look] how
[Allah’s] bounty spread the wings of its favours over them and made flow for them streams of its blessing, and the whole community became was covered in blissful prosperity. Consequently they were submerged under its bounty.’
[Nahj al-Balagha, Sermon 192]

5. إتمامُ الحُجّه

5. Completing the Proof
[against them]

7. The Prophet (SAWA) said, ‘He sent messengers to them so that He would have the ultimate proof against His creation, and His messengers to them are witnesses over them. He sent among them prophets who were bearers of glad tidings and warners that those who contradict His evidence will perish, and that those who were revived by His evidence will be revived. And that servants may comprehend about their Lord that which they did not know, and come to know Him through His Lordship after they had denied it, and that they may profess His divine unity through His Godliness after they had advocated
[it].’
[al-Tawhid, p. 45, no. 4]

8. Imam al-Sadiq (AS) said, ‘Prophets and Messengers are of four classes: a prophet who imparts the tidings to his own self and doe not extend to anyone else; a prophet who sees
[the Unseen] in his sleep and hears sounds but does not see anything when awake, and he is not sent to anyone and he has a leader
[Imam] over him, like how Prophet Abraham (AS) was to Prophet Lot (AS); a prophet who sees in his dream, and he hears and sees the angel, and he is sent to a group, be they small or large, like Prophet Jonah
[Prophet Jonah (AS) is known as Yunus in the Arabic tradition (ed.)] (AS). Allah said about Prophet Jonah (AS): “We sent him to a
[community of] hundred thousand or more,”
[ Qur`an 37:147]
[He continued], ‘or more’ by thirty thousand, and he has an Imam over him too; and a prophet who sees in his sleep, hears the voice, sees while awake, and he himself is an Imam
[leader] like the arch-prophets, and Prophet Abraham (AS) was a prophet and not an Imam
[leader] until Allah said, “I am making you the Imam of mankind”
[ Qur`an 2:124]
[ al-Kafi, v. 1, p. 174, no. 1]

9. The Prophet (SAWA), when Abu Dharr asked about the number of prophets, said, ‘One hundred and twenty four thousand prophets.’ I asked, ‘How many of them are Messengers?’ The Prophet said, ‘Three hundred and thirteen altogether.’ I asked, ‘Who was the first of prophets?’ He said, ‘Adam.’
[al-Khisal, p. 524, no. 13]

10. Imam Zayn al-`Abidin (AS) said to some of his companions, ‘From the Messengers there are five arch-prophets.’ We asked, ‘Who are they?’ He said, ‘Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad, peace of Allah be upon them.’ We asked, ‘What does Ulu al-`Azm mean?’ He said, ‘They were sent to the east of the earth and the west, to its Jinn and its humans.’
[BihAr al-Anwar, v. 11, p. 33, no. 25]

11. Imam al-Sadiq (AS), when Sumaya b. Mihran asked him about Allah’s verse in the Qur`an: "So be patient just as the resolute among the apostles were patient", said, ‘Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad, peace be upon him, his progeny and them.’
[Sumaya said,] I asked, ‘How did they become the arch-prophets?’ He said, ‘Because Noah was sent with a divine book and law (shari`a), and all who came after him adopted Noah's book, law and teachings, until Abraham (AS) came with the Scriptures being commanded to leave Noah's book without disbelieving in it…’
[al-Kafi, v. 2, p. 17, no. 2]

12. The Prophet (SAWA) said, ‘Us prophets have been commanded to speak to people according to the capacity of their intellects.’
[Bihar al-Anwar, v. 77, p. 140, no. 19]

13. The Prophet (SAWA) said, ‘Us prophets are such that our eyes sleep but our hearts do not sleep, and we see behind us as we see in front of us.’
[Bihar al-Anwar, v. 16, p. 172, no. 7]

14. The Prophet (SAWA) said, ‘From the morals of the prophets and the righteous ones is smiling when they see people, and shaking hands when they meet each other.’
[TanbIh al-Khawatir, v. 1, p. 29]

15. Qatada narrated, ‘Allah has never sent a prophet without sending him with a handsome face and a pleasant voice.’
[al-Tabaqat al-Kubra, v. 1, p. 376]

16. Imam Ali (AS), describing the prophets (AS), said, ‘They were abased people, whom Allah had tried with hunger, afflicted with difficulty, tested with fear, and shaken with troubles. If Allah had wished to open for His prophets treasures of gold, mines of pure gold and grounds of gardens wherever He sent them… He would have done so, but if He did, tests would be invalid, and reward would be inapplicable. Rather, Allah the Glorified, made His prophets strong in their determination, and weak in their appearance as seen from the eyes, with contentment that fills the hearts and eyes with richness, and with poverty that pains the eyes and ears.’
[Nahj al-Balagha, Sermon 192]

17. Imam al-Sadiq (AS) said, ‘Allah never sent a prophet unless He had made him herd sheep
[first], through which He taught him how to manage people.’
[`Ilal al-Sharai`, p. 32, no. 1]

18. Imam al-Kazim (AS) said, ‘Allah, Almighty, did not send a prophet or a successor unless he was generous.’
[al-Kafi, v. 4, p. 39, no. 4]

19. Imam al-Riza (AS) said, ‘Cleanliness is of the morals of the prophets.’
[Tuhaf al-`Uqul, p. 442]

20. Imam al-Riza (AS) said, ‘Perfume is of the morals of the prophets.’
[al-Kafi, v. 6, p. 510, no. 1]