Encyclopedia of Islam

Further reading: Daniel da Cruz, “Worry Beads.” Saudi 

Aramco World 19 (November–December 1968): 2–3; 

Samuel M. Zwemer, “The Rosary in Islam.” Muslim 

World 21 (1931): 329–343.

prayer rug

  See 

prayer

.

predestination

  See 

fate

.

prophets and prophethood

Belief in prophets and prophethood is a primary 

feature in the Abrahamic religions of Judaism, 

Islam, and Christianity. Prophets are virtuosos 

in divine-human communication. In Islam there 

are two main terms for prophet: (1) messenger 

(sing.  rasul, pl. rusul), the bringer of a message 

or revelation sent from God via 

angel

s (imply-

ing that the transmitter of the message is not the 

source and revelation is not a human product, but 

divine speech, Q 16:2), and (2) the older Jewish 

term navi prophet, or in Arabic nabi (pl. nabiyin

or anbiya)—a law bringer who mediates a specific 

covenantal relation with God and conveys the 

binding quality of divine law upon the commu-

nity of believers. Prophets as law-bringers are sent 

by God to every people, conveying God’s message 

in language they can understand (Q 30:47). This 

was later interpreted to mean an Arabic revela-

tion to the Arab people, a Hebrew revelation to 

the Jewish people, and a Greek revelation to the 

Christian people (Muslims were familiar with the 

Greek-speaking Christians of Byzantium).

In Islamic belief, the prophetic tradition begins 

with the forefather of humanity, Adam, with whom 

God is said to have formed a preexisting 

covenant

(Q 7:172). Islamic tradition accepts, and the q

Uran

details, the ongoing covenantal legacy of Jewish and 

Christian prophets and revelations, including three 

chief scriptures: (1) Jewish t

orah

 (Arabic: tawrat,

encompassing Torah, Naviim, and Ketuvim [Penta-

teuch, Prophets, and Writings, except Psalms]), (2) 

Zabur (the Psalms of d

avid

), and (3) Christian Injil

(“Gospel,” implicitly the whole of the New Testa-

ment). In addition to m

Uhammad

, the full list of 

prophets mentioned in the Quran includes: Adam, 

Alyasa (Elisha), Ayyub (Job), Daud (David), Dhu 

al-Kifl (Ezekiel), Hud, Ibrahim (a

braham

),  i

dris

(Enoch), Ilyas (Elijah, Elias), Isa (J

esUs

), Ishaq 

(Isaac), Ismail (Ishmael), Luqman, Lut (Lot), Musa 

(m

oses

), Nuh (Noah), Salih, Shuayb (Jethro), 

Sulayman (Solomon), Yunus (Jonah), Uzeir (Ezra), 

Yahya (J

ohn

 

the

  b

aptist

), Yaqub (Jacob), and 

Yusuf (J

oseph

). Although revelations appear to be 

plural (even if only by virtue of inevitable errors in 

transmission by earlier human communities), the 

prophets in Islam are all understood to be equal, 

with no difference between one and another (Q 

2:135–140; 2:285). Belief in the prophets without 

distinction brings reward (Q 4:152).

Female figures with some of the “prophetic” 

gifts deserve some mention here. m

ary

, mother of 

Jesus, is the only female figure to have a chapter 

of the Quran named for her (Q 19). She does not 

fully fit the category of prophet, which otherwise 

seems a completely male category. She does, how-

ever, receive divine messages via an angelic mes-

senger of the “word of God” (kalimat Allah), which 

God breathes into her in the divine conception of 

Jesus (Q 3:45; 4:171). She is credited in Islam with 

extraordinary holiness, herself immaculately con-

ceived, and is a “receiver/transmitter” of the “Word 

of God” via her son, Jesus. However, she has no pro-

phetic ministry, she does not bring a new religion,