Muslims identify the Prophets as those humans chosen by God and given revelation to deliver to mankind. Muslims believe that every prophet was given a belief to worship God and their respective followers believed it as well. Each prophet, in Muslim belief, preached the same main belief of worshiping God (which in Arabic is translated as Allah) and in the avoidance of idolatry and sin. Each came to preach Islam at different times in history and some, including Jesus told of the coming of the final prophet and messenger of God, who would be named Muhammad. Each prophet directed a message to a different group of people, and thus would preach Islam in accordance with the times. Although many lay Muslims and many Western scholars and writers hold the view that Islam began with Muhammad in Mecca, this contradicts the Quran, which says that Muhammad simply was the last prophet who preached the same faith that Adam preached to his children. There are 25 prophets mentioned by name in the Qur’an, although Muslims believe that there were many more in different times and places. Among the prophets that Muslims honor are:
• Adam
• Idris (Enoch)
• Nuh (Noah)
• Hud
• Saleh
• Ibrahim (Abraham)
• Isma’il (Ishmael)
• Ishaq (Isaac)
• Lut (Lot)
• Ya’qub (Jacob)
• Yousef (Joseph)
• Shu’aib
• Ayyub (Job)
• Musa (Moses)
• Harun (Aaron)
• Dhu’l-kifl (Ezekiel)
• Dawud (David)
• Sulaiman (Solomon)
• Ilias (Elias)
• Al-Yasa (Elisha)
• Yunus (Jonah)
• Zakariyya (Zechariah)
• Yahya (John)
• ‘Isa (Jesus)
• Muhammad