"Expectations of the Prophet" and "making distinctions between the prophets"

One of the greatest favors and blessings of our Lord Almighty upon us human beings is that He has sent us messengers "from among ourselves," who "recite His verses to us," who "educate us," and who "teach us the Book and wisdom."

A prophet was sent to every people in that people's own language; that the prophets were from their tongue, one of their own, able to deliver God's message to them in its most comprehensible form and in the way that touches life most directly, is a very great favor.

The expectations many people have of a prophet, however, have gone far beyond this ordinariness: a surprising, enchanting profile, extraordinary, equipped with miracles and supernatural characteristics. That is why one of the most important objections to many of the prophets who came was that he was someone "who walks with us in the marketplace, who wears the same things we wear, eats, speaks and laughs like us." This is what it means to kill a prophet with expectations before he even comes.

People who decide what kind of person the prophet will be, what he will say to us when he comes, what he will teach us and what he will ask of us, are in fact killing him before he even comes. This has been one of the most typical traits of the Children of Israel in history. Killing the prophet before he comes. Not liking the prophet who comes or his message. Just as they killed with this attitude the prophets they did not like, it is also a fact that on occasion they actually killed them.

Their reaction to the mission of Muhammad (peace be upon him) was likewise so. They did not expect a prophet from the unlettered Arabs whom they had always belittled and looked down on. The prophet had to be one of their own, and his mission had to be carrying them to the actual leadership of the world. They already regarded themselves, in essence, as the natural holders of the right to leadership. But they expected the process that would turn this right into an actual leadership to come through a powerful leader, a prophet, that God would send them. They had no expectation of the prophet coming to hold up a mirror to them, taking them by the hand from the arrogant, rebellious line they were on, educating them and guiding them to the right path. They had already decided what the prophet should bring them. It did not seem possible for them to accept a prophet who came with a message other than that. Smothering a friend with our expectations, loading onto him what we expect of him and destroying him in our own minds, is in fact a form of deviation to which people often resort. Because the Children of Israel made this a way, they have been described as a people who lost, who squandered, the knowledge of where to place the prophet and how to treat him.

Their behavior toward Moses and toward their other prophets was in fact no different. The story of what Moses suffered from the Children of Israel is told at length both in the Qur'an and in the Torah. We know how they overwhelmed him with their expectations, their caprices, their demands. They virtually threw it in the face of Moses, who by God's will and under the guidance of His revelation had delivered them and set them free from Pharaoh's tyranny, as a favor done to them; they disliked the messages he brought, followed the ornate sentences of the Samiri, and even made for themselves a golden calf. The path Moses offered them was simpler than necessary, and the religion was far from complicated and was liberating. Yet they could have no expectations other than those that came through the window of the ideology of slavery to which they were accustomed and in which they had been conditioned for generations.

It is a long but very meaningful story, full of lessons in every stage and every moment. What is important for Muslims in this story is that, whatever the prophet brings us from God, whatever he tells us, he will have given us life. When God's messenger calls us to that which will give us life, rather than resisting him with our own expectations and bargainings, it is the trait of the Muslim to say "we heard and we obeyed." In this respect the prophets are the most fundamental dimension of the relationship between humans and God, and a Muslim, just as he believes in Muhammad, believes in all the other prophets and makes no distinction between them.

The calls of Muhammad and Moses were not different from one another. Both were calling to worship God and God alone, and to reject servitude to a fellow servant.

Muslims who today oppose discourses that insult Muhammad cannot look kindly on insults to other prophets, and this, as our friend Vahdettin İnce emphasized very well, shows that among all people only Muslims possess the teaching that can establish "kinship ties" (sıla-i rahim). Moses, Jesus and all the other prophets are the prophets of Muslims.

On the two articles we wrote about the latest insolent cartoon affair, a very valued friend of ours made a request with a message like this, and I hope we are answering this request:

"In the name of God...

Esteemed Brother!

I read, with attention and tenderness, with desire and longing, accompanied by utmost reverence for our Master and good prayers and supplications for your esteemed self, your article that you wrote about the cartoon, for our Master Muhammad Mustafa (peace and blessings be upon him), one of our two Prophets.

I benefited from it greatly and made a special prayer for you.

One point caught my attention: since you mentioned our Prophet Moses (peace and blessings be upon him) somewhat, I held on to the thought that next week, on the same day, you would devote your article to our Master Moses (peace be upon him); I am awaiting your article with fervor, as a humble reader of yours. And I am almost as sure as of my own name that your other readers are also in the same expectation. For we Muslims make absolutely and categorically no distinction, we cannot make a distinction, among our Prophets whom God chose from among human beings and sent to us as our unique examples, guides, leaders and chiefs.

We cannot make a distinction; because, from the first Prophet of Islam, our father Adam (peace be upon him), to the last Prophet of the end of time, Muhammad (peace be upon him), we must believe in all of our Prophets, whether their names are mentioned in the Qur'an or not, so that we can be Muslims and believers.

Then, given that in the accursed cartoon drawn by cursed hands, first our Master Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) and immediately after him our Master Moses (peace and blessings be upon him) were insulted and shown enmity.

Indeed, Moses (peace be upon him) was slandered and insulted by being called the "prophet of the Jews," a killer, and they used the language that these Zionist unbelievers and polytheists, the killers of our prophets, use. Those who defend themselves in this language have confessed with their own mouths that they stand beside and behind the Zionists."