Muslims regard prophets of Islam (Arabic: نبي‎) as those humans chosen by Allah (the standard Arabic-language word for "the God"). Humans rely on revelation or tradition to identify prophets.

Each prophet brought the same basic ideas of Islam which is the submission to God, his words and his orders. They brought the belief in a single God and the avoidance of idolatry and sin. Each came to preach Islam and told of the coming of the final law-bearing prophet and messenger of God: Muhammad. Each prophet directed a message to a different group and each prophet taught minor variations in sharia (or the practice of religion) to a different target audience. These variations constitute applications of Islam: mainstream Muslims do not consider them discrete versions of Islam.

Islamic tradition holds that God sent messengers to every nation. Muslims believe that God sent Muhammad in the end to "seal" and to convey the divine message to the whole world (To sum up and finalize the word of God), whereas he sent the other messengers (rusul) to convey their messages to a specific group of people or to an individual nation.

The line of prophets

Muslims regard Adam as the first prophet and Muhammad as the last prophet; (from the traditional interpretation of Muhammad's title Seal of the Prophets). Islam regards Jesus as a rasul (and sometimes as a nabi) because he received wahy (revelation) from God, through which God revealed the Injil (Gospel) to him. They, like the Christians, believe in the return of Christ, and have great respect for Christ and his mother Maryam. He is called Eesa (Isa), son of Maryam. They do not believe, however, that he was the son of God or that he was God.

Islamic theology recognises as many as 124,000 prophets. Five of them (sometimes known as Ulul Azmi or the Imams — literally: "leaders" — of the Rasuls) receive the highest reverence for their perseverance and unusually strong commitment to God in the face of great suffering, namely:

1. Nuh (Noah)
2. Ibrahim (Abraham)
3. Musa (Moses)
4. Isa (Jesus)
5. Muhammad

The Word 'Prophet'

In both Arabic and Hebrew, the term nabī (plural forms: nabiyyūn and anbiyāʾ) means "prophet". Forms of this noun occur 75 times in the Qur'an. The term nubuwwa (meaning "prophethood") occurs five times in the Qur'an. The terms rasūl (plural: rusul) and mursal (plural: mursalūn) denote “messenger” or "apostle" and occur more than 300 times. The term for a prophetic “message”, risāla (plural: risālāt) appears in the Qur'an in ten instances.

The Syriac form of rasūl Allāh (literally: "messenger of God"), s̲h̲eliḥeh d-allāhā, occurs frequently in the apocryphal Acts of St. Thomas. The corresponding verb for s̲h̲eliḥeh — s̲h̲alaḥ, occurs in connection with the prophets in the Old Testament (Exodus 3:13-14, 4:13; Isaiah 6:8; Jeremiah 1:7).

Prophets and messengers in the Qur'an

The table below charts the Qur'anic verses which explicitly reference a prophet (nabi), a messenger (rasul) , a leader (imam) or Christ (Messiah). It also includes explicit references to prophets' book(s) / people / divine law (Qur'an).

prophets of Allah in the Qur'an

Source: Wikipedia

Name	Prophet	Messenger	Imam	Messiah	Book	People	Qur'an
Adem (Adam)	Prophet
Shith (Seth)	Prophet[]				[ (Psalms)
Idris (Enoch)	Prophet[]
Nuh (Noah)	Prophet[]	Messenger[]				People of Noah[]	Qur'an[
Hud (Eber)		Messenger				ʿĀd[]
Saleh (Salih)		Messenger[]			Dhikr]	Thamud[]
Ibrahim (Abraham)	Prophet[]	Messenger[]	Imam[]		Suhuf Ibrahim (Scrolls of Abraham)	People of Abraham[]	Qur'an[]
Lut (Lot)	Prophet []	Messenger]				People of Lut[]
Isma’il (Ishmael)	Prophet]	Messenger[
Is'haq (Isaac)	Prophet[]		Imam]
Yaqub (Jacob)	Prophet[]		Imam]
Yusuf (Joseph)	Prophet]
Ayyub (Job)	Prophet]
Shu'ayb (Jethro)		Messenger]				Midian[]
Musa (Moses)	Prophet]	Messenger[]			Scrolls of Moses (Suhuf Mossa)[	Pharaoh and his chiefs[]	Qur'an]
Harun (Aaron)	Prophet]
Dawud (David)	Prophet]				Zabur[] (Psalms)
Sulayman (Solomon)	Prophet]
Ilyas (Elijah)	Prophet	Messenger[]				People of Elijah[]
Al-Yasa (Elisha)	Prophet[]
Yunus (Jonah)	Prophet[	Messenger[]				People of Jonah]
Dhul-Kifl (Ezekiel)
Zakariyya (Zechariah)	Prophet[]
Yahya (John the Baptist)	Prophet[]
Isa (Jesus)	Prophet	Messenger[]		Messiah	Injil[] (Gospel)	Sent to Children of Israel[	Qur'an[]
Muhammad	Prophet]	Messenger[]	Imam		Qur'an	Sign for the Whole World	Qur'an[

Distinguishing between prophets and messengers

In short, Islam regards every messenger as a prophet as well, but not every prophet as a messenger. The Qur'an, like the quoted passage from the New Testament, may rank a messenger higher than a prophet. For example, whenever both titles appear together, "messenger" comes first. Crucially, a messenger delivers a new religious law (Sharia) revealed by God, whereas a prophet continues an old one.[citation needed] God sends both prophets and messengers as givers of good news and as admonishers of their people.[citation needed] In the case of messengers, however, it appears that a close relationship exists between them and their people (ummah). A messenger will become the witness that God will take from that community on the Day of Judgment (see the following Sura; Yunus 10:48; An-Nahl 16:38; Al-Mu’minoon 23:46; Ghafir 40:5; An-Nisa 4:45; Al-Qasas 28:75). According to the Qur'an, God sent Muhammad to all of humanity and to the Djinn.

Muslims distinguish between celestial and human messengers. In the Qur'anic world, God has made the angels messengers but not prophets. The human messengers, however, also function as prophets — though not every prophet serves as a messenger. Angels always carry "orders" to the human prophets or messengers on what to say, what to do, and so forth. While human messengers deliver some messages about new orders to the people, prophets only reinforce previous orders by earlier messengers or prophets, but since the angels carry orders to prophets to do their duty, then all angels of revelations count as messengers.

The status of prophets

The Qur'anic verse 4:69 lists various virtuous groups of human beings, among whom prophets (including messengers) occupy the highest rank. Verse 4:69 reads:

Jesus as an apostle

Prophets and scriptures

The prophets and Muhammad

Islam views every single prophet from Adam (Arabic: ادم) to Muhammad as important. According to the Qur'an, the prophets 'Isa (Jesus), Musa (Moses), Dawud (David), Ibrahim (Abraham), Saleh (Shelah), and Muhammad had the responsibility of ushering in their own holy scripture, given to them by God. 'Isa received the Injil (Gospel), as expressed in the following verses from the Qur'an:

However, Muslims believe that humans have altered the Injil (bible), therefore, it now does not represent the full truth, as given by God.[citation needed] Musa received the Books of Moses, and Ibrahim the Books of Abraham. Dawud gave humankind the Zabur (Psalms). Saleh is responsible for the Dhikr, which is a practice that focuses on the remembrance of God. It often includes the repetition of the names of Allah.

On the other hand, Muhammad was given the Qu'ran, which is believed by Muslims to be the purest and truest holy book of God. In Islam, it was believed to have been given to Muhammad through divine revelation by the angel Jibreel (Gabriel). Its purpose was to perfect the beliefs of the one true God, Allah, because of the turning away of the Jews and Christians from the true religion, into dogmas and doctrines. They main reasons behind their mistrust to the books followed by Christians and Jew are that they had been translated too many times inaccurately, and that the original text had been mixed repeatedly with personal notes of self-appointed apostles or the opinions and explanations of one person or another through-out time. Islam however, separated the word of God from the word of the Prophet, and the words of people regarding the life of the prophet from the very start to avoid such a confusion. The words of the Holy Book "The Qu'ran" are fully accurate and unchangeable and they are not doubted to be true for they are the same everywhere. However, the word of the prophet and the stories recorded about the prophet are placed in several different books based on accuracy, trust of source or possibility of being inaccurate. Not all the quotes of the prophet are necessarily true ones.

The purpose of messengers

The following list summarises the purpose of sending Gods messengers:

1. God sent messengers to every nation to guide them to His path
2. Messengers warned nations to follow God's commands and gave them glad tidings
3. Messengers gave guidance from Allah, taught knowledge and provided a path to purification
4. God explained that obedience to Him and to His Messenger will earn paradise
5. And those who disobey will earn hell fire
6. God said that He will judge people only after receipt of the Message from His Messengers, judging everyone based on their own actions
7. Thus, those who received His message can not claim ignorance as an excuse

The relationship between messengers, prophets, the Announcement, and the Sender

The verse about the great news reads

Nabi, Naba

The word used in this verse, naba, relates to the word nabi.
* Nabi (prophet) means: "one who informs others".
* Naba means: "news", "announcement", "information".
* Anbiya represents the plural form of nabi.
Anbiya inform others of a coming naba. The Qur'an says that the naba is not the Qur'an itself but that it comes in the future.

Rasul, Mursil

Note that the word rasul relates to the word mursil.
* Rasul means: "a messenger", "a bearer of a message".
* Mursal(een) also means: "a messenger", "a bearer of a message".
* Mursil means: "one who sends", "a sender".
* Risalat means: "messages".
* Rusul also represents the plural form of rasul.
So a mursil sends a rasul to give risalat. The Qur'an says that risalat of the mursil (Allah) form His kalimat. The Quran says that risalatullah cannot end.

All together

Putting these together, we see that the mursil sent both Jesus and Muhammad (each a rasul) to act as a nabi and to inform of the naba. The Qur'an itself even states that the messages (risalat) — by definition the kalamat (words) of God — remain inexhaustible. Therefore the naba which the anbiya (plural of nabi) announced must itself precede more risalat (messages). If or when the naba appeared, no further need exists for any more nabi (who give the news of the naba). What about rusul (messengers) and risalat (messages)? Does the mursil stop sending rusul to give his risalat? The Qur'an says "no". Note that the sender of messages and messengers (mursil) functions as a rasul if he gives the risalat himself. And note that the mursil can send rusul who are not anbiya.

Summary

To summarize, we have four words: nabi, naba, rasul, and mursil.
* Some rusul (plural of rasul) rank as anbiya (prophets) if sent (arsala) before the naba.
* Some rusul are not anbiya if sent after the naba.
* The naba itself is a risalatun.
* The Qur'an associates the naba with the mursil.
* Risalat cannot be exhausted.
* The mursil sends rusul to give risalat even after naba.
* Nothing prevents a mursil giving risalat himself (and acting as a rasul).

The reception of the prophets

"... Like Christianity, [Islam] claimed to be a common heir of the Abrahamic traditions. Unlike Judaism, it taught that much of that tradition had been corrupted by false prophets and evildoers. Like Christianity, it claimed a continuum with the prophets of old; unlike Christianity it made little use of any specific passages of the Hebrew bible, did not incorporate it into its own sacred library, and did not regard the finality of Muhammad’s prophethood to be based on any adumbration in the books of the Jews or Christians.... Islam alone found error not merely in interpretation but in the sources themselves. The idea of error was both tied to and a consequence of the doctrine of finality: Muhammad is the prophet of God in a conclusive and indubitable sense. What is contained in the book revealed to him is true beyond question." —R. Joseph Hoffmann