of its misuse be minimised, was to make the requisite guidance
accessible to man. Nubuwwah fulfilled both conditions. From time to
time, God selected a man who could be entrusted with Divine
Revelation. Every nation had its own Nabi who, relying not on force
and compulsion but on persuasion, summoned his people to the
path of righteousness. The guidance was meant for free beings who
could accept or reject it as they liked. There are no people amongst
whom a Nabi has not been raised by God. There have been many
Anbiya, but substantially the same revelation was vouchsafed to
them. This is made clear in the Qur'an:
Verily, We have revealed to thee, like as We revealed to Noah and the
Anbiya after him, and (as) We revealed to Abraham and Ishmael, and
Isaac and Jacob and (others from amongst their) tribes, and Jesus and
Job and Jonah and Aaron and Solomon; and We gave David the
Psalms; and apostles of whom We have related to thee before, and
apostles of whom We have not related to thee, and God spoke to
Moses (as well) speaking with him (4:163-64).
Many Anbiya are mentioned by name in the Qur'an and the
strenuous efforts made by each of them to expound the Revelation
and lead his people in its light are described. Noah Abraham,
Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Aaron, David, Solomon and
Jesus and some others are among those who have been expressly
mentioned. The Qur’an explicitly states that there have been many
Anbiya who are not mentioned but they deserve to be respected as
they too were the bearers of the Divine Revelation. The purpose of
the Qur'an is to emphasize the essential unity of the Divine
Revelation which was vouchsafed to different men in different ages
and countries. Moreover, the Qur'an forbids Muslims to make
invidious distinctions between the Anbiya:
The believers say: We make no distinction between any of His
messengers (2:285).
The institution of nubuwwah has rendered invaluable service to
mankind. As long as the human mind was immature, men needed a
personal guide who could explain to them the Divine purpose and
who could, by his living example, show to them how they could
bring their life into full accord with that purpose. The Anbiya helped
forward the progress of moral and intellectual development. For
this reason, Nabi after Nabi came to mankind in quick succession.
There came a time, however, when the mind of man reached
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