Messengers — The Seed

The Quran does not describe a new religion for each messenger. It describes one religion, given again and again.

God says to Muhammad: “We did not send any messenger before you except with the inspiration: ‘There is no god except Me; you shall worship Me alone.’” [21:25]

In one verse, God speaks to Muhammad and names Noah, Abraham, Moses and Jesus beside him: “He decreed for you the same religion decreed for Noah, and what we inspired to you, and what we decreed for Abraham, Moses, and Jesus: ‘You shall uphold this one religion, and do not divide it.’” [42:13]

Now listen to the messengers themselves, and to God speaking to Moses. The table below puts their words side by side. The peoples changed. The languages changed. The centuries changed. The message did not.

Abraham stands in the middle of the story. Adam and Noah came before him. Moses, Jesus and Muhammad all came from his children.

God says of Abraham: “We granted him Isaac and Jacob, we assigned to his descendants prophethood and the scriptures” [29:27]. The Torah, the Gospel and the Quran all came to his descendants.

God made Abraham's two sons, Ismail and Isaac, prophets [19:54] [19:49]. Abraham and Ismail prayed for a messenger from among their descendants [2:129]. Muhammad came in answer, sent “to recite to them His revelations, purify them, and teach them the scripture and wisdom” [62:2]. Isaac's son was Jacob, whom the Bible also calls Israel. Moses, Mary and Jesus came from the Children of Israel [19:58].

Abraham himself was not Jewish or Christian. Those names came later. God says: “Abraham was neither Jewish, nor Christian; he was a monotheist submitter. He never was an idol worshiper.” [3:67] And God reminds us that “the Torah and the Gospel were not revealed until after him” [3:65].

Abraham passed the same message to his children. Jacob, on his death bed, asked his sons what they would worship after him. “They said, ‘We will worship your god; the god of your fathers Abraham, Ismail, and Isaac; the one god. To Him we are submitters.’” [2:133]

Much of what believers practise today began in his family. God appointed Abraham to set up the Shrine [22:26]. God told him to call the people to the Hajj pilgrimage [22:27]. God says of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob that “we taught them how to work righteousness, and how to observe the Contact Prayers (Salat) and the obligatory charity (Zakat)” [21:73].

God also gave us our name through him. Our religion is “the religion of your father Abraham. He is the one who named you ‘Submitters’ originally.” [22:78] And God commanded Muhammad to “follow the religion of Abraham, the monotheist” [16:123].

Jews, Christians and Muslims all look back to Abraham. The Quran invites all three to look at what he actually did. He worshiped God alone.

The Quran tells us who each of them was. It names some as prophets, some as messengers, and some as both.

Muhammad was both. God says: “He was a messenger of GOD and the final prophet.” [33:40]

Jesus was both. God calls him “a messenger of GOD” [4:171]. And as a baby in the crib, Jesus said God “has appointed me a prophet” [19:30].

Moses was both. God says: “He was devoted, and he was a messenger prophet.” [19:51]

Abraham was both. God says: “he was a saint, a prophet” [19:41]. And he was sent as a messenger to his people: “We sent Noah and Abraham” [57:26] [9:70].

Each one delivered the same message. And not one of them was more than a human servant of God.

No messenger ever asked to be worshiped. Not one.

God says no prophet would ever ask for worship: “Never would a human being whom GOD blessed with the scripture and prophethood say to the people, ‘Idolize me beside GOD.’” [3:79] Nor would a prophet “command you to idolize the angels and the prophets as lords” [3:80].

Yet people did it anyway. God says of them: “They have set up their religious leaders and scholars as lords, instead of GOD. Others deified the Messiah, son of Mary.” [9:31]

On the Day of Judgment, God will ask Jesus about this [5:116]. Jesus will answer: “I told them only what You commanded me to say, that: ‘You shall worship GOD, my Lord and your Lord.’” [5:117]

The same danger is close to Muslims too. God commands: “do not call on anyone else beside GOD” [72:18]. He taught the believers to say: “We make no distinction among any of His messengers.” [2:285] And about any other source, God puts the question plainly: “In which Hadith other than GOD and His revelations do they believe?” [45:6] There is more on this at Hadith & Sunnah.

So we honour every messenger. We love them, learn from them and follow the message they brought. But we worship God alone.

God revealed the Quran to Muhammad. God speaks of “what was sent down to Muhammad—which is the truth from their Lord” [47:2]. And Muhammad was told to say that “this Quran has been inspired to me, to preach it to you and whomever it reaches” [6:19].

Unlike the earlier books, the Quran is kept by God. God did not leave its safety to people. He made the promise Himself: “Absolutely, we have revealed the reminder, and, absolutely, we will preserve it.” [15:9]

God says of it: “No falsehood could enter it, in the past or in the future” [41:42]. And He invites us to test it: “If it were from other than GOD, they would have found in it numerous contradictions.” [4:82]

God describes the Quran as “confirming previous scriptures, and superseding them” [5:48]. It confirms the truth that came before. And it has the final word.

This matters to every reader of this section. A Jew can meet Moses here. A Christian can meet Jesus here. A Muslim can meet Muhammad here. Each one as God describes him, in words no one has changed.