Prophets of Islam

In the Quran there a number of men mentioned who are considered prophets in Islam. These are men who directly communicated with Allah and whose job it was to spread the word of God upon Earth. Many of these prophets are also found in the holy texts of Judaism and Christianity. While there are only 25 prophets mentioned in the Quran, Muslims believe that there were about 24,000 of them throughout history.

Prophets are also broken into group. There are messengers or rasool and prophets or nabi. All prophets fall into the latter grouop, but only those who were sent with holy books are considered "messengers". Of all the thousands of prophets, Muslims believe that there were only about 300 messengers.

The first prophet is Adam, while the last prophet is Muhammad, and thus his title Seal of the Prophets. Jesus is the result of a virgin-birth in Islam like in Christianity, and is regarded as a prophet similar to the others.

Prophets in the Quran

The following are listed as prophets in the Quran, their Biblical names are given in paranthesis when possible:

I may be wrong on some of the numbers, corrections are appreciated

Possible non-mentioned Prophets

There are numerous historical figures that may have been prophets, but this is a source of debate. Among them are: Buddha and Mary. The mention in the Quran of a character known as Dhul-Kifl is controversial, as some have believed that it is a reference to Alexander the Great, while others believe it is some other Alexander. The contemporary history of Alexander the Great which lists him as a homosexual leads many to believe that he is not the individual spoken of in the Quran.