Faith in the Institution of the Prophethood

Human beings were created in order to act as the caliphs/vicegerents of Allah. Although humans are the only beings among the visible entities who are able to reason, who can choose between right and wrong, and act according to their free will, they were not abandoned with their mind and their free-will, but due to Divine grace and wisdom they were given support with the institution of prophethood so that they could solve their problems and be led to the right path. The institution of prophethood consists of the prophets chosen by Allah from among the people and the revelations imparted unto these prophets. Since the beginning of creation until the time of Muhammad (pbuh), prophets were periodically and sometimes simultaneously or consecutively sent to people; they showed them the right path which would lead them to happiness both in this world and in the afterlife and acted as guides for humanity in material and spiritual issues.

Since the prophets promised heaven to those who had faith in Allah and spoke of the punishment of hell for those who denied Allah or acted against His commands, and as they taught people what could not be known to them through their senses or comprehension, they constituted absolute proofs of the existence of Allah for the people by providing information from the transcendental world.

Islam, after necessitating faith in Allah, without making distinctions between the prophets, makes it an obligation for people to have faith in all the prophets and all the books brought by them. Whether they are called nabis or rasuls, people are required to believe in all the prophets. In addition to this, it is necessary for people to have absolute faith in the fact that those people whose names are mentioned as prophets in the Quran were prophets. People should also believe that each society was provided with a prophet. As a matter of fact, there are clear orders in the Quran, such as "have faith in the prophets" and it is further stated that those who refuse to acknowledge the prophets or their revelations are committing acts of distortion and that they shall be subjected to vileness on earth and thrown into hell in the afterlife. (Al-Baqarah 2/21, 151, 213; Al-i Imran 3/164, An-Nisa 4/165; Al-Anaam 6/48; Al-Ta-ha 20/123).

The Islamic scholars agree that those who do not have faith in the institution of the prophethood and in the prophets whose names are stated in the Quran are not Muslims. On this issue there is no conflict among the scholars.