Muhammad a Prophet For all Humanity
1. From Adam to the Messiah
~ 17 ~
Few people, for instance, followed the Prophet
Yahya (John the Baptist) and he died a martyr’s
death. When Lot left his people, only two of his
daughters accompanied him. According to the Old
Testament, only eight people entered the ark along
with Noah. When Abraham left his native country,
Iraq, the only people to accompany him were his
wife Sarah and his nephew Lot, although they were
later joined by his two sons, Ishmael and Isaac.
Even after great missionary effort on the part of
Jesus, the priests and religious authorities who
heard his teachings did not follow him, and even
his twelve friends temporarily forsook him at the
moment of truth.
This was the unhappy lot of most of the prophets.
The ties of kith and kin sometimes brought a
handful of followers to the more fortunate, but as
often as not, would-be prophets were forced by the
inattention and insensitivity of those around them
to live out their lives in solitude and persecution.
This verse of the Qur’an very aptly sums up
common attitudes to prophethood throughout the
history of mankind: “Alas for the servants! They
laugh to scorn every prophet that comes to them.”
1
