Madinat al-Muslimeen Islamic Message Board
| Why doesn't Quran mention non-Middle Eastern Prophets? |
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| explorer |
| 01/15/02 at 17:47:11 |
| [slm] I'm always stuck in a rut when trying to answer this question from non-muslims. If the Quran was for whole mankind then why doesn't it mention non-middle eastern Prophets so it can relate to their parts of the world? The Prophet SAW said Allah sent 124,000 prophets. The Quran only names 25 of these and says a warner was sent to every nation/people. However all these named Prophets are middle-eastern. The immediate addressees of the Quran and the Prophets may have been middle eastern but the message was for whole mankind. So why doesn't Allah tell us of non-middle eastern Prophets? Need answers, fast. |
| Re: Why doesn't Quran mention non-Middle Eastern Prophets? |
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| Rashid |
| 01/15/02 at 22:06:45 |
| [slm] [quote]the message was for whole mankind[/quote] Subhanallah you've answered your question: It really doesn't matter if the Qur'an doesn't mention non-middle eastern prophets, because Muhammad [saw] was sent with a message for all of humanity. [wlm] |
| Re: Why doesn't Quran mention non-Middle Eastern Prophets? |
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| akbalkhan |
| 01/16/02 at 00:23:50 |
| As Salamu Alayka, To add to Abd Rashid's point, if I may, and perhaps someone else can clear this up for me, but the Quran does mention in several places that a messenger was sent to all nations/peoples and were there to serve as a guide to the way of Allah SWT, this being in and of itself a mentioning of non-Middle Eastern messengers. If the Quran was for whole mankind then why doesn't it mention non-middle eastern Prophets SO IT CAN RELATE TO THEIR PARTS OF THE WORLD? I am not sure that it doesn't relate to all peoples of the world in its current form. Relating the QUran to our own circumstances is limited only by the imams' or the readers' ability than the Qurans scope in its message and lessons. I am not totally sure that I would understand the Quran any more or less if it were to speak about messengers, alayhis salam, that came to Native Americans thousands of years ago.(My peeps) There is no way that the QUran in its present form ,with available tafsir and commentary, and the many translations, is incapable of being related to even in its recount of the success and trials endured by Middle Eastern messengers, alayhis salam. What I find a very intriguing, yet unconventional, study is my own search into matching customs and traditions in ancient myths from across cultures, that correspond in many details to Arab societies before and after the Quran was revealed. Regards, Qamar Akbal Kaan |
| Re: Why doesn't Quran mention non-Middle Eastern Prophets? |
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| shadow493 |
| 01/16/02 at 10:18:30 |
| [slm] According to some hadiths, the Prophet Muhammed (saw) said that there were 124,000 prophets and messangers sent to mankind (Ibn Hanbal, Musnad, 5, 169) or some others say 224,000. Although the number is not important, we can easily deduct that there were many more prophets sent than there are mentioned in the Quraan. What purpose would it serve that Allah would mention more Prophets. Brother Abd Al-Rashad is correct in saying that the Prophet Muhammed (saw)'s message was sent to all of mankind. Allah say's that he has sent a Prophet and/or a messanger to every nation, so the message has been sent to every nation, we just do not know who the certain Prophet was. And plus, the Prophet Muhammed (saw) is the seal of all the prophets. I do not believe the Bible mentions any other Prophets outside of the Middle Eastern area as well, someone correct me if i am wrong on this point. [wlm] adami |
| Re: Why doesn't Quran mention non-Middle Eastern Prophets? |
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| lightningatnite |
| 01/16/02 at 11:00:24 |
| Salam :) Hmm...good question. Well, first of all, to say all of the Prophets mentioned in the Qur'an are Middle Eastern is not really true, because there isn't a single peninsula or specific country that can be defined as the Middle East. "Middle East" is with reference to Europe, and stands in contrast with "Far East". So this area, which includes parts of Africa, Asia, and Anatolia, is quite large. Second, the "Middle East" is the locus of human civilization. Damascus is the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world. It makes sense that major Prophets would emerge from this centralized region, whose civilization was highly evolved. Third, some notable commentators on the Qur'an, including Abdullah Yusuf Ali, contend the 'Dhual Qarnain' was most likley Alexander the Great.(Yes, Bhaloo, many disagree with this :). Yusuf Ali mentions that Dhual Qarnain means ruler of the 2 horns, representing east and west. North and South America had and still have extremely low population densities with respect to the Middle East region. Now, what about China? Some people say the Gog and Magog people refers to the Chinese. However, the Qur'an doesn't mention any Chinese prophets. Perhaps because the Qur'an doesn't mention the names of many prophets at all. Its not important. The Qur'an is not a historical document, and leaves out dates, lineages, and names because they are irrelevent when it comes to worshipping our Creator. Historians have not been able to deconstruct the Qur'an, as they did the Bible, for that reason. One last thing, previous revelations were not universal, so the fact that they do not mention Chinese prophets is not really relevent. Those revelations were sent to particular tribes or nations. InshaAllah this helps :) Salam :) |
| Re: Why doesn't Quran mention non-Middle Eastern Prophets? |
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| Anik |
| 01/17/02 at 01:23:44 |
| asalamu alaikum, was Adam AS a middle Eastern prophet? And yes, do not forget that Middle East is a relative term... Depending on perspectives, it has been called the West, the Arabian lands... the South the desert, the East everything... What about Nuh AS? Musa AS was in Africa right? bottom line is, Why doesn't the Quran mention outer world types of prophets? It says that one was sent to every nation. perhaps their stories weren't what Allah SWT wanted us to get hung up about, or concentrate on. Perhaps they began to be worshipped in a "shirk-ful" fashion or were not treated as prophets... Bottom line is, Allah willed it to be so. And who knows better than He? asalaamu alaikum. abdullah,. |
| Re: Why doesn't Quran mention non-Middle Eastern Prophets? |
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| AbdulBasir |
| 01/17/02 at 03:18:06 |
| [slm] one more quick thing to add here... Indeed the Qur'an is the final, comprehensive revelation, and Rasulallah[saw] was the final messenger whose message was for all of humanity... Yet the first audience to this message were the Arabs and that shouldn't be forgotten. The Arabs knew very little about Ibrahim AS and hardly knew (or didn't know) of other prophets more outside their region like Yusuf AS, Isa AS and some of the others mentioned in the Qur'an. We know of their reactions to the revelation and we know that they even made ludicrous attacks as in their questioning why the Qur'an was revealed in Arabic and not in another language even when they only spoke Arabic themselves. They didn't know of hardly any of the "Middle-Eastern" Prophets mentioned in the Qur'an, what would the inclusion of other Prophets from other regions done for them? All of it is irrelevant because as people have already mentioned, the Qur'an is not a book of history but the Book of Guidance...And it continously stresses how all the Prophets and Messengers preached the same message of Tawheed... And Allah knows best... [slm] |
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