Belief in the Prophets and Messengers

Islam teaches that God sent prophets and messengers to every nation throughout history, each calling their people back to the same core message: worship God alone. The Quran names twenty-five prophets explicitly, among them Adam, Nuh (Noah), Ibrahim (Abraham), Musa (Moses), and Isa (Jesus), and states that many more were sent whose stories are not detailed in the text. A distinction is often drawn between a nabi (prophet), who receives revelation, and a rasul (messenger), who is additionally given a scripture or law to deliver to his people. All messengers are prophets, but not all prophets are given a new scripture — some are sent to reaffirm and uphold a law already revealed to an earlier messenger. Muhammad ﷺ is described in Islamic belief as the final prophet, sent to all of humanity rather than to one nation, with no prophet to follow him. Muslims are required to believe in and honor every prophet named in the Quran without ranking them against one another in a way that diminishes any of them, since they are understood to have shared one mission across different times and peoples.