Click here to return Home
Quran Lessons
By the name of Allah the Merciful the Compassionate
Stories of the Prophets
Part 1
by Tareq Swedan
Introduction
The Early Beginning
Allah said:
Allah said in the Quran:
We do relate unto thee the most beautiful of stories, in that We reveal to thee this (portion of the) Quran: before this, thou too was among those who knew it not. 13:3
Allah has told us stories in the Quran for various reasons. To help the believer stand against hardships and to take example from them. The Holy Quran mentioned 25 messengers. Another reason for mentioning these stories in the Quran is in order to correct the historical errors that has been added to these stories and to show the truth about them.
The Prophets are the Minarets of guidance and the example to be followed. Allah sent them consecutively from the beginning of creation and in Hadeeth of the prophet pbuh he said that the number of the messengers sent to human beings is 3000 and the number of prophets is 124000 one.
Allah sent them whenever Humanity suffered from deviation that pulled it away from the right path. And they were sent also a an evidence on people so that they do not deny that they haven�t knew anything about truth and nobody has showed them the way.
When we meditate in these stories we find that they are the axle of history because history circles around Prophets because of the immense effect they left in establishing the history of man. In addition the conflict that rose between those who followed Prophets and those who stood against them is still until today a battle between right and wrong and good and evil.
Studying the stories of the Prophets in the Quran enables us to have better understanding of the Quran since they carry a lot of meanings and wisdom that would not be revealed to you until you know the story. An example of that is the story of Moses pbuh that was mentioned in the Quran in 70 verses.
These stories were mentioned also for us to know and understand the way the Prophets in asking people to the way of Allah and their methods and ways in doing that.
The stories of the Prophets came in the Quran, the Sunna of the Prophet and in history books and these are the references I took these stories from. But I put a condition upon my self not to narrate any weak narration and to stick to the correct Ahadeeth and the interoperations of the most important interpreters of the Quran and especially Ibn Abbass and Ibn katheer.
That is Allah, your Lord! There is no god but He, the Creator of all things; then worship ye Him; and He hath power to dispose of all affairs. 6:102
And said:
He it is Who created the heavens and the earth in six Days, and is moreover firmly established on the Throne (of authority), He knows what enters within the earth and what comes forth out of it, what comes down from heaven and what mounts up to it. And He is with you where so ever ye may be. And Allah sees well all that ye do. 57:4
In a Hadeeth a man named Abu Razeen said that he asked the prophet pbuh, oh messenger of Allah, where was Allah before He created heavens and Earth? The Prophet answered, �He was in Space (emptiness) what�s above him is space and what�s beneath him is space and his throne was on water.� (Ahamd)
In another Hadeeth the prophet pbuh said, �The first of Allah�s creation is the Pen then Allah ordered it to write and it wrote everything that was going to be till the Judgement day.� (Ahmad)
In another Hadeeth the Prophet pbuh said, �Allah has written the destiny of the creatures prior to creating the heavens and earth with 50.000 years and his throne was on water.
So Allah has created the Throne, then the Pen, then He created heavens and Earth.
As for the order of creating the creatures of our world:
In a Hadeeth by Abu Hurairah said that the Prophet took my hand and said, �Allah created the soil on Saturday, the mountains on Sunday, the trees on Monday, the harm on Tuesday, the light on Wednesday, the animals on Thursday, and created Adam after Aser on Friday in the last hour between Aser and night.�
And from this we find that there is nothing called evolution but creation. Allah has created the creatures and they didn�t evolve by themselves.
Then Allah created the Angels- peace be upon them:
In a Hadeeth, �Angels were made out of light, Jinn were made out of Fire and Adam was created from what was described to you.�
After the Angels Allah created the Jinn and Satan was one of them.
Allah said:
And He created Jinns from fire free of smoke. 55:15
It was narrated from ibn Omar and Ibn Abbass that they said,
Jinn were created before Adam with 2000 years and they inhibited Earth but they corrupted it and killed each other and shed their blood. Allah sent an army of Angels to them and a great fight happened which resulted in the cast away of the Jinn from earth to the island in the middle of the oceans and this is still until these days the home of Jinn and their leader Satan.
Different Ahadeeth came to say that Satan, the leader of Jinn, has his throne on water-trying to imitate Allah almighty.
Allah said: Behold! We said to the angels, "Bow down to Adam": they bowed down except Iblis (Satan). He was one of the Jinns, and he broke the Command of his Lord. Will ye then take him and his progeny as protectors rather than Me? And they are enemies to you! Evil would be the exchange for the wrongdoers!