"Say, 'We believe in God, and in that which was sent down unto us, and in that which was sent down unto Abraham, Ishmael, Issac, Jacob and the Tribes, and in what Moses and Jesus were given, and in what the prophets were given from their Lord. We make no distinction among any of them, and unto them Him we submit.'"
Quran 2:136
This is one of the many passages in the Quran which speak to the prophetic tradition that ties Judaism, Christianity (the Peoples of the Book) and Islam together. According to Islamic tradition there have been 124,000 prophets stretching back to Adam, the vast majority of whom are not named. As Nasr tells us in The Heart of Islam, "Islam sees itself as at once the primordial religion, a return to the original religion of oneness, and the final religion; the Quran itself calls the Prophet of Islam the 'Seal of the Prophets.'" (p. 18) If you don't know much about Islam, essentially what the Quran is stating is there have been innumerable prophets over the millennium, and that God makes "no distinction among any of them." So, as Muslims look at the prophets there is no attempt to say that some are Jewish prophets and others are Christian prophets, but that instead they are all prophets of the same tradition, which includes Islam. A foundational belief of Islam is that notion that Muhammad was the final prophet. It would be way too much to say that it is a belief I reject or even struggle with, but, truthfully, it does give me pause, and I'll talk about this in a later. Nasr continues, "The two characteristics of primordiality and finality have bestowed upon Islam its trait of universality and the capability to absorb intellectually and culturally so much that came before it."
A quick side thought: how is primordiality not in spell checker? This says something very bad about the world in which we live.
Quran 2:136
This is one of the many passages in the Quran which speak to the prophetic tradition that ties Judaism, Christianity (the Peoples of the Book) and Islam together. According to Islamic tradition there have been 124,000 prophets stretching back to Adam, the vast majority of whom are not named. As Nasr tells us in The Heart of Islam, "Islam sees itself as at once the primordial religion, a return to the original religion of oneness, and the final religion; the Quran itself calls the Prophet of Islam the 'Seal of the Prophets.'" (p. 18) If you don't know much about Islam, essentially what the Quran is stating is there have been innumerable prophets over the millennium, and that God makes "no distinction among any of them." So, as Muslims look at the prophets there is no attempt to say that some are Jewish prophets and others are Christian prophets, but that instead they are all prophets of the same tradition, which includes Islam. A foundational belief of Islam is that notion that Muhammad was the final prophet. It would be way too much to say that it is a belief I reject or even struggle with, but, truthfully, it does give me pause, and I'll talk about this in a later. Nasr continues, "The two characteristics of primordiality and finality have bestowed upon Islam its trait of universality and the capability to absorb intellectually and culturally so much that came before it."
A quick side thought: how is primordiality not in spell checker? This says something very bad about the world in which we live.
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