Islamic history

Stories of the Prophets

Read each biography with its key events, lessons, and cited references.

• Adam آدَم
  Abu al-Bashar — Father of Humanity — The first human, the first prophet, and the first khalifah on earth. Allah fashioned Adam with His own hand from clay, breathed into him of His spirit, taught him the names of all things, and honoured him by commanding the angels to prostrate. From him and his wife Hawwa, all of humanity descended.
• Idris إِدْرِيس
  An-Nabi as-Siddiq — The Truthful Prophet — The second prophet mentioned by name in the Qur'an after Adam. He lived in the generations of tawhid between Adam and Nuh, was praised as a man of perfect truthfulness, and was raised by Allah to a 'high station.' Classical tradition identifies him with Enoch and remembers him as the first man to write with the pen, the first to study the stars, and the first to sew clothes.
• Nuh نُوح
  Sheikh al-Anbiya — Elder of the Prophets — Sent to a people who had been the first to drift into idol-worship, after generations of righteousness following Adam. He called them for nine and a half centuries; only a handful believed. Allah commanded him to build the Ark, and the great flood came.
• Hud هُود
  Prophet to 'Ad — Sent to the powerful Arab tribe of 'Ad in the southern Arabian valley of Al-Ahqaf. They were a people of great stature and engineering, builders of 'lofty columns the like of which had not been created in the lands.' Hud called them to tawhid; they mocked him; Allah destroyed them with a roaring wind for seven nights and eight days.
• Salih صَالِح
  Prophet to Thamud — Sent to Thamud, the successors of 'Ad, in the rocky valleys of north-west Arabia (Mada'in Salih). They were master stone-carvers who hewed their homes out of mountains. Salih's sign was a she-camel that came forth from solid rock — Naqat Allah — with strict terms on her drinking. They killed her; Allah destroyed them with a single great cry.
• Ibrahim إِبْرَاهِيم
  Khalilullah — Friend of the Most Merciful — The patriarch — called Khalilullah, the Friend of Allah. He broke his people's idols, was thrown into a fire that Allah made cool and safe, was tested with the migration of his wife and infant son into a barren desert, was tested again with the sacrifice of his son, and finally raised the foundations of the Ka'bah in Makkah.
• Lut لُوط
  Prophet to the People of Sodom — The nephew (or cousin, per most tafsirs) of Ibrahim. He migrated with him from Iraq and was settled in the cities of the plain — Sodom and her sisters — where he was sent to call a people who were 'the first of the worlds' to commit a particular sin. His wife sided with the wrongdoers; angels in human form visited him on the night of judgement; Allah overturned the cities and rained stones upon them.
• Isma'il إِسْمَاعِيل
  Dhabihullah — The One Offered in Sacrifice — The elder son of Ibrahim, born of Hajar. He was the infant left in the barren valley of Makkah, the boy who said 'Father, do as you are commanded' on the day of the great test, the youth who helped Ibrahim raise the foundations of the Ka'bah, and the ancestor of the Arabs from whose loins the final Prophet ﷺ would be born.
• Ishaq إِسْحَاق
  Son of Ibrahim, Father of Ya'qub — The second son of Ibrahim, born to Sarah in her old age after she was told the news by angels she could not believe at first. He was given prophethood and 'goodness in his offspring' — through his son Ya'qub came the twelve tribes of the Children of Israel, and through him the great chain of prophets up to Isa.
• Ya'qub يَعْقُوب
  Israel — Father of the Twelve Tribes — The son of Ishaq, the grandson of Ibrahim, and the father of the twelve sons who became the heads of the tribes of Bani Israel. Allah named him 'Isra'il' — the meaning is debated by classical mufassirun ('servant of God' is the most common) — and his life was a long lesson in patience: through grief he lost his eyesight, and through faith he saw what no one else could see.
• Yusuf يُوسُف
  As-Siddiq — The Truthful — Sold by his brothers, imprisoned despite his innocence, and raised by Allah to the seat of power in Egypt. The Qur'an calls his story 'the best of stories' (12:3) — a complete arc from a child's dream to its fulfilment, every step engineered by Allah.
• Ayyub أَيُّوب
  The Patient Servant — Allah's most patient servant. Tested with the loss of his wealth, his children, and finally his health, Ayyub endured for years and never complained of his trial to anyone. When he finally did call upon his Lord, the Qur'an records the most restrained prayer in scripture, and Allah's answer was a spring of water at his foot that restored everything.
• Shu'ayb شُعَيْب
  Khatib al-Anbiya — The Eloquent of the Prophets — Sent to the people of Madyan, a trading town near the Gulf of Aqaba. They were merchants who cheated their customers by tampering with weights and measures. Shu'ayb called them to honesty in commerce and to tawhid in worship. They mocked him; the earthquake and the cry took them. He is sometimes called Khatib al-Anbiya — the eloquent one of the prophets — for the beauty of his sermons.
• Musa مُوسَىٰ
  Kalimullah — The One Who Spoke to Allah — Born under Pharaoh's decree of slaughter, raised in the very palace that ordered the slaughter, fled into exile, returned with the message of tawhid, confronted the pharaoh, led the Israelites out through a parted sea, and spoke directly to Allah on Mount Tur. The Qur'an mentions him by name more than any other prophet.
• Harun هَارُون
  Brother and Vizier of Musa — The elder brother of Musa, three years his senior, and the prophet Allah appointed at Musa's own request to share the burden of confronting Pharaoh. Eloquent where Musa was halting in speech, he carried the message alongside his brother, guarded the Children of Israel in Musa's absence, and bore — uncomplaining — the great test of the golden calf.
• Dhul-Kifl ذُو الْكِفْل
  Possessor of a Double Portion of Patience — A prophet mentioned twice in the Qur'an, paired both times with the most patient of Allah's servants. The classical tradition gives his name as Bishr ibn Ayyub (the son of Ayyub, who took on a 'double portion' — kifl — of work after his father). Allah singled him out among the patient and admitted him into His mercy.
• Dawud دَاوُد
  Khalifatullah — The King and Reciter — A shepherd boy who slew the giant Jalut (Goliath), became the king of the Israelites, was given the Zabur (Psalms), and was honored with a voice in worship so beautiful that the mountains and birds joined him in praise.
• Sulayman سُلَيْمَان
  Malik al-Insi wal-Jinn — King of Men, Beasts and Jinn — Son of Dawud and successor to his throne. Allah taught him the speech of birds and animals, gave him command over the wind and the jinn, and granted him a kingdom that no one before or after him would ever have.
• Ilyas إِلْيَاس
  Elijah — The Warner of Ba'l — A prophet of the Children of Israel sent to the people of Ba'lbek and the surrounding region of Sham. They had taken up the worship of an idol named Ba'l. Ilyas — known to the biblical tradition as Elijah — confronted them with the unity of Allah and warned them of judgement; only a few believed.
• Al-Yasa الْيَسَع
  Elisha — Successor in the Chain — The prophet who succeeded Ilyas among the Children of Israel and continued his work of calling them back to tawhid. Mentioned by name twice in the Qur'an, in both verses listed among the most honored of the prophets.
• Yunus يُونُس
  Dhun-Nun — Companion of the Whale — Sent to the people of Nineveh in northern Iraq. He left them in anger before Allah's permission, was cast into the sea, swallowed by a great fish, and from the three layers of darkness inside its belly cried out the words of repentance Allah Himself would record in the Qur'an as the gateway of every distressed believer to His mercy.
• Zakariyya زَكَرِيَّا
  Guardian of Maryam — A prophet of the Children of Israel and the guardian of Maryam in her chamber at the temple. Already old and his wife barren, he saw Maryam's provision arrive miraculously and was moved to ask Allah for an heir. Allah answered him with Yahya — a son He chose with a name no one before him had borne.
• Yahya يَحْيَىٰ
  John — The First to Believe in Isa — The son of Zakariyya, granted to his father in old age by direct miracle. He was given wisdom as a child, raised in the temple, called to chastity and humility, and was the first of the prophets to recognize Isa as the Messiah. He was eventually killed by the rulers of his time for refusing to permit an unlawful marriage.
• Isa (Jesus) عِيسَىٰ
  Al-Masih ibn Maryam — The Messiah, Son of Mary — Born miraculously to the chaste virgin Maryam, he spoke from the cradle, healed the sick and raised the dead by Allah's leave, was raised up to Allah before the schemes against him could succeed, and will return at the end of times.
• Muhammad ﷺ مُحَمَّد ﷺ
  Khatam al-Anbiya — Seal of the Prophets — The final messenger, sent as a mercy to all the worlds. Born in Makkah in the Year of the Elephant, he received his first revelation in his fortieth year and conveyed Islam over twenty-three years — thirteen in Makkah and ten in Madinah — bringing the human race its last and most complete guidance.