Question to Muslims, please?

Question

I am a Catholic who is just starting to read about Islam. Please forgive me if I sound ignorant, I am truly asking this with respect.
My question is: According to Islam, the angel Gabriel spoke to Muhammad many times. You say that Muhammad is the last prophet that God will send to the world. You also believe that there were other prophets before him, like Noah, Moses, David, & Jesus. According to our Bible, God spoke directly to Noah, Moses & David & spoke through Jesus (becuz we believe Jesus is the Son of God). Does Islam believe that God spoke directly to some of these other prophets like we do? If so, I was wondering why Muhammad would be called the greatest prophet if God didn't speak to him directly, that an angel did? I would think that the prophets that God spoke directly to would be greater than one that a angel spoke to. Also, in Christianity 'angel' means 'messenger of God'. In Arabic, doesn't Muhammad mean "messenger of God"? Would he then be thought of as an angel? Thnx

Answer 1

I'll answer you with all my knowledge.
first as a Muslim i can not and will not make distinctions between the Prophets of God. I'm commanded to not make any distinctions.

second, God spoke to Abraham(pbuh) through Gabriel (pbuh) too, so it really doesn't prove any thing.

and even Jesus (pbuh) was contacted by Gabriel (pbuh) all this is in the Quran. we believe that Gabriel (pbuh) is indeed the Holy Spirit.
we also believe that God spoke to Moses (pbuh) directly. i dont know about the other Prophets though.
an angel is not necessarily a messenger of God, well, we ALL God's slaves and servants. but i would consider a messenger to be one who delivers a message and not all angels deliver messages to humans on earth. but there are some angels who did, like the angels who spoke to Abraham (pbuh) and told him that he'll have a son although him and his wife were too old to have children. they were indeed messengers of God.

all human messengers of God are Prophets but not all prophets are messengers of God.
messenger Prophets are the ones that received a message for humanity, like, Moses, David, Jesus, and Muhammad peace be upon all of them.

and God knows best.

Peace.

Answer 2

Does Islam believe that God spoke directly to some of these Prophets?
yes we do as the prophet Moses ( peace be upon him). The word Muhammad in Arabic means Praise by people . Muhammad ( peace be upon him) people praise him before Islam and they call him ( The honest ) because he has never been lie. The prophet Muhammad ( peace be upon him) because he is the last prophets, he will be the witness of all Prophets ( peace be upon them all ) in the judgment day . Also Gabriel is the greatest angle ., God choose the greatest people and the greatest angle.All these prophets are a messengers of God and they are not angles. the wisdom behind this to see people like us how could they stand against their desires and worship God alone.

Answer 3

4:163] we have inspired you, as we inspired Noah and the prophets after him. And we inspired Abraham, Ismail, Isaac, Jacob, the Patriarchs, Jesus, Job, Jonah, Aaron, and Solomon. And we gave David the Psalms.

[4:164] Messengers we have told you about, and messengers we never told you about. And GOD spoke to Moses directly.

Muslims believe that Moses is the only prophet that God spoke directly to and that the other prophets, like Muhammad and Jesus, were divinely inspired. We believe this because it is in the Quran. We do not think, (should not think) that Muhammad is better then the other prophets. We do believe that prophet Muhammad is the last prophet of mankind, but as Muslims we should not (as taught in the Quran) exalt one prophet over the other.

[2:136] Say, "We believe in GOD, and in what was sent down to us, and in what was sent down to Abraham, Ismail, Isaac, Jacob, and the Patriarchs; and in what was given to Moses and Jesus, and*** all the prophets from their Lord***. We make no distinction among any of them. To Him alone we are submitters."


Muhammad means "the trustworthy." But Muslims believe Angel Gabriel brings revelation and inspriation to the prophets of God. We do not believe that Moses is better then the other prophets (because God spoke directly to him) we just believe God favored some prophets over others. But different prophets had different gifts, Jesus healed people, David was a great musician and made clothes and shaped iron, and Aaron was an eloquent speaker. You see each prophet had a gift, and God chose them because they were perfect to deliver the message at that time to the people of that time. So God speaking directly to Moses is a blessing that was given to Moses, just like Jesus was the only prophet revealed to us that healed the sick and walked on water.
It almost likes asking if a pianist is better then a singer... get my drift

PS: we do not believe any angels were send down as prophets.
But do believe angels are messengers of God.

Pray that was helpful :) Peace and Blessing of God be Upon You

Answer 4

In Islam we also believe that Noah, Moses, David, & Jesus were prophets, and that God spoke to them as well. We believe that God did speak to Mohamed directly as well as through Gabriel. There are some great websites that you could do more research on, whyislam.org is one of the best. I apologize for not being able to give you more information, but I am a new Muslim and am still learning, I reverted to Islam after being raised Catholic.

Answer 5

Yes we believe some of the propehts talked to God. But where did you find that prophet Muhammad (pbuh) never directly talked to God? The prophet even met God. He traveled by Buraq upto the skies, he talked with Moses, Jesus, David and Abraham. Later he had conversation with God alone. In Qur'an:

[17:1] "Glory be to Him Who made His servant to go on a night from the Sacred Mosque to the remote mosque of which We have blessed the precincts, so that We may show to him some of Our signs; surely He is the Hearing, the Seeing."

In Christianity it may mean a messneger, but the meaning of messenegr in Islam is different. There are four major messengers, 1. David, 2. Moses, 3. Jesus and 4. Muhammad.
It means they were given greatest divine revelations. So comparing Muhammad with a mere angel is wrong.

We don't compare among prophets and messengers:

[4: 150-151] "Those who deny Allah and His Messengers, and those who wish to make distinction between Allah and His Messengers and say 'we believe in some but reject others' and those who wish to take a way in between, they are in truth unbelievers and We have prepared for unbelievers a humiliating punishment."

He is called the best messenger because he fulfilled the chain of prophets and messnegers by establishing the Divine truth, Tawhid. He is the best prophet, but it doesn't mean others are worse. No way, we can't say that.

Answer 6

Muhammad (PBUH) was a regular, honest human being, just like all the prophets before him. What makes hims special is that he was sent to all mankind, and was the Seal of all the prophets (history has stayed true to this).

The only reference that God directly talked to Muhammad (PBUH) was during the laylat-al-isra' wal me3raj (the Night of the Ascension). This is when Muhammad (PBUH) was invited to traverse the vastness of space and see some of God's greatest signs, embedded in the fabric of the universe. He was escorted by the Archangel Gabriel, and rode a vehicle called the "borak". He reached the final "lote tree" which is at the end of the 7th Heaven. That's were the Garden of Paradise is located. Please read the "Al-Najm" sura (The Star) chapter in the Qur'an. It has an overview of his trip. The first line of the sura hints that Stars can "fall" or "become unseen", eluding to the existence of black or worm holes...

He was able to see God that night and the compilation of the speech that was given to him directly is called the "Hadith el Qudsi" or The Holy Speech. That's the only reference of a direct communication between God and Muhammad (PBUH) in Islam. Please see: http://www.islamworld.net/40.html.

All the revelations he received from when he was 40 years of age, until he died at 63 years were communicated to him by God through the Archangel Gabriel.

Answer 7

listen if you are searching for the truth il answer, well since muhammed is the last prophet, his relegion is based on physical and life subjects. that people can;t ignore or refuse, we know jesus has healed people saved life with meracles etc. but imagine when you say to someone that muahmmed has healed people with meracle, and he says give me a prove. what will you say, islam has hundreds of scientific meracle that are found day after day in Quran. that;s what people need. reall scientific meracles which are mentioned 1400 years ago. and muahmmed has spoken to god directly too in many times, and beleive me jesus was given direction by that angel too. god wouldn't talk to him every time. muahmmed is the greatest cause he is the last and has the longes period of time, the distance between christian and islam is only 500 years. also muhammed was tired or had troubles more than the other prophets, and he had Quran the bigest meracle that no prophet got it, if you know most of the hidden parts in bible are mentioned and completed in Quran, which's all directly god's saying and words, bible is jesus not god. also we think god has no son or daughter, if he has so he's needable, left thrones, love, passion, i can tell you whoever controlled by these things dont deserve to be god. jesus is only another prophet of god, like the otheres, i hope i have helped you alittle.

Answer 8

God didn't speak to any of the Prophets except Moses, directly. All the other Prophets were given the message of God through Gabriel. An important point to note is that, speaking directly or indirectly doesn't signify importance or the "rank" of a Prophet.

Though there is a narration stating that Muhammad (peace be upon him) had a vision of God, its not agreed upon by all the scholars. The important thing, however is that this is not significant.

Allah says in the Qur'an:

Say (O Muslims): We believe in Allah and that which is revealed unto us and that which was revealed unto Abraham, and Ishmael, and Isaac, and Jacob, and the tribes, and that which Moses and Jesus received, and that which the prophets received from their Lord. We make no distinction between any of them, and unto Him we have surrendered. (2:136)

Note that Allah is commanding the believers to not make any difference between the Prophets.

All the Prophets were the best among the people of their age. As Allah says in the Qur'an:

Allah did choose Adam and Noah, the family of Abraham, and the family of 'Imran above all people(3:33)

Behold! the angels said: "O Mary! Allah hath chosen thee and purified thee- chosen thee above the women of all nations. (3:42)

(Allah) said: "O Moses! I have chosen thee above (other) men, by the mission I (have given thee) and the words I (have spoken to thee): take then the (revelation) which I give thee, and be of those who give thanks." (7:144)

Also,

And it is your Lord that knoweth best all beings that are in the heavens and on earth: We did bestow on some prophets more (and other) gifts than on others: and We gave to David (the gift of) the Psalms. (17:55)

Regarding Muhammad (peace be upon him)

Muhammad is not the father of any of your men, but (he is) the Messenger of Allah, and the Seal of the Prophets: and Allah has full knowledge of all things. (33:40)

The most important thing to note is that all the previoud messengers were sent rectify the evils of a certain region, where as Muhammad's (peace be upon him) message is for all of mankind as Allah says in the Qur'an

And We have not sent you but as a mercy to the worlds. (21:107)

Muhammad(peace be upon him) was preferred (in the sight of God) as the final Prophet as God sent him to all of mankind and his message is for all of mankind contrary to previous Prophets.

Muhammad means "The Loved One".

Answer 9

He's called the greatest because he was the last, and thus brought some of the most important messages. He is not an angel, he is human, just as we all are. God chose an ordinary man to bring his message so that we would believe in God and not his messenger.

Answer 10

Well, sister, Mohammed (peace be upon him) was an angel in human form. That's why God loved him so much. However, like all the other prophets, he was a man only, but at higher level, because he was a prophet. Different prophets were given special gifts from God, as you said, such as being able to heal the sick or raise the dead like Jesus did. Therefore, it makes sense that since God did speak to certain prophets, that maybe they were higher in rank than other prophets. However, we don't know exactly what those rankings are, only God knows, Therefore, Muslims are told to make no distinctions between the prophets, and are taught that they are all equal in the eyes of God. However, I believe that God (Allah) thinks of Mohammed(peace be upon him) as the highest of the prophets, because Mohammed's name (peace be upon him) is on Allah's throne. If Mohammed (peace be upon him) wasn't the highest of God's prophets, his name would not be on God's throne. And yes, Allah did reveal the Quran to Mohammed (peace be upon him) through the Angel Gabriel. And God did actually speak to Mohammed (peace be upon him)as well, on the night journey (Miraj). Allah's light appeared to him as well, and he almost fainted and lost consciousness from the glory of it. So you are very right in every detail but one in your question, sister. God also spoke to Mohammed (peace be upon him).