Advice of Scholars - THE NUMBER OF PROPHETS

The number of prophets (’alaihimu ’s-salâm) is not known. It is well known that they were more than 124,000. Among them, 313 or 315 were rasûls; the six higher rasûls among them, called Ulu ’l-’azm, were: Âdam, Nûh (Noah), Ibrâhîm (Abraham), Mûsâ (Moses), ’Îsâ (Jesus) and Muhammad Mustafâ (’alaihimu ’s-salâtu wa ’s-salâm).

The following thirty-three prophets are well-known: Âdam, Idrîs, Shît (or Shis), Nûh, Hûd, Sâlih, Ibrâhîm, Lût, Ismâ’îl, Is’hâq, Ya’qûb, Yûsuf, Ayyûb, Shu’aib, Mûsâ, Hârûn, Khidir, Yûshâ’ ibn Nûn, Ilyâs, Alyasa’, Dhu ’l-kifl, Sham’un, Ishmoil, Yûnus ibn Matâ, Dâwûd, Sulaimân, Luqmân, Zakariyyâ, Yahyâ, ’Uzair, ’Îsâ ibn Mariam, Dhu ’l-qarnain and Muhammad (’alaihimu ’s-salâtu wa ’s-salâm).

Only the names of twenty-eight of them are written in the Qur’ân al-kerîm. Shît, Khidir, Yûshâ’, Sham’un and Ishmoil are not written. Among the twenty-eight, it is not certain whether Dhu ’l-qarnain, Luqmân and ’Uzair were prophets or not.