In answer to the video "Did Allah Really Send Prophets to the Entire World?"
Rabbinic literature recognizes the prophethood of 7 non-Israelite, non-Jewish men (Talmud, B. B. 15b) besides those whom they did not recognize but were nevertheless true prophets. That is not to speak of the others they rejected or murdered throughout their history, more notoriously during the near collapse of their nation's spirituality as they vastly reverted to idol worship after Solomon's reign. They began slaying any person claiming prophethood and speaking against their practices. They had done the same under the reign of Ahab.
These non-Israelite prophets they recognize are Job (Ayyub in the Quran, Iyov in Hebrew), as well as the following personalities mentioned in the book of Job; Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, Zophar the Naamathite, Elihu son of Barakel the Buzite. They also recognize the prophethood of Balaam and his father.
The Torah mentions Balaam in Numbers23 even though he is blamed for having advised the Moabites to seduce the Israelites encamped in their land, into idolatry Numb25. The Moabites willingly accepted in order to bring about God's curse upon the Israelites and stop their advance in Canaanite territory. Balaam would later be killed in battle with the Midianites who were also part of the conspiracy, and whom oral tradition asserts he aided with magic and sorcery, making the Midianite kings "fly". Despite what he is accused of, Balaam, a prophet recognized as such by Jews and non-Jews, has still his divinely inspired message to the Jews, revered in prayers to this day Numb23-24.
Jonah or Nahum were Israelite prophets who preached to non israelites. Obadiah was, according to tradition, an Edomite convert to Judaism who admonished his own non-Jewish people. The Israelites Jeremiah and Ezekiel prophecied to the non-Jewish nations that had destroyed and plundered the Jews, announcing the inevitability of their doom. All this to corroborate that even within accepted Jewish tradition, prophethood to non-Jews or by non-Jews isnt a strange thought.
It is also to be noted that God in the Torah is reported to have announced several covenants with Abraham, and none of them is related to prophethood being the sole prerogative of one branch or another. Many Jews therefore, including the most learned among them, as related in both Quranic and non Quranic sources, accepted the prophethood of Muhammad and those that rejected him didnt do so for racial reasons. They most certainly harboured racial prejudice and jealousy in their hearts but could not declare these reasons as warranting rejection of prophethood to a non-Israelite, as it would be scripturally baseless. They thus essentially based their opposition in that Muhammad, like Jesus and countless others as related in both the Hebrew Bible and the NT, brought a message that wasnt to their liking. Others admit to Muhammad's prophethood in light of the Biblical criteria of what constitutes a prophet or not, but are not ready to heed his message and so invent the excuse that although he is a true prophet, his message does not concern them; he is a prophet to the Ishmaelites only.
In Deuteronomy 18, the prophecy states that, despite Moses' similarities with the prophet to come after him, from the Israelites' brethren, his essential difference with him would be in how God's commands or laws would be communicated to the people. Moses received the law through direct communication with God himself or as the Quran says, "God spoke directly to Moses". In the case of the "Prophet like unto Moses", God would not communicate in this manner, but would inspire His words into the mouth of this Prophet.
During the time of the prophet Muhammad, the Israelites would try and obscure, denigrate and discredit him and his followers by saying that God spoke to Moses directly, but not to Muhammad, so why should they believe him 28:48? Yet, not only did they majoritarly disbelieve in both Moses and Aaron despite the miracles witnessed and the manner in which Moses received revelation, preferring even to remain in Egypt and die in slavery, but also the very prophecy within their own books outlines that such would be the type of divine communication with the awaited one and they were bound to follow him and if anyone of them fails to do so God himself "will make him answer for it".
But now that the prophet came to them, not with praises but with a severe condemnation for their transgressions and their consequent removal of being the torch-bearers of divine truth, they would put forward polemics after the other, as already shown above, in order to justify their disbelief in him. They claimed for example, that their following a prophet was contingent upon him making an offering that would miraculously be consumed by fire
3:183"Surely Allah has enjoined us that we should not believe in any messenger until he brings us an offering which the fire consumes".
There was never a covenant upon the Jews to only believe in a prophet if his sacrifice is consumed by a miraculous fire. A clever way to answer a premise based on a lie is taking the assumption that it is true so as to hit 2 birds with one stone, thereby refuting the argument and exposing the liar. The Quran directs them to prophets who brought them signs, including like the one they demanded from Muhammad. Yet they still rejected, even killed them. This proves that such covenant doesnt exist (exposing the liar) or even worse, that it would be irrelevant to them whether it existed or not (refuting the argument). One has to keep in mind, this "challenge" did not come from sincere seekers of truth but taunters who already made their mind, as seen in the wider passage. The traditions also detail their warmongering activities to kill the Muslims and the prophet. Therefore the Quran is right in placing them in the same pattern as those among their forefathers who rejected and killed these prophets.
As to the allusion in the verse, Elijah in the HB brought them this very miracle of an offering miraculously consumed by fire thereby confirming his truthfulness and that of the prophets with him. The Israelites nevertheless tried killing him, and succeeded in killing many truthful prophets that were with him.
The reply strikes at their challenge from 2 aspects, it is invalid scripturally as other similar "challenges" were, and judging by their historical trend towards prophets, it lacked any sincerity. In other words it was just an excuse to keep rejecting and maintain their position and worldly benefits. So the Quran takes that opportunity, not to provide any proof for Muhammad's prophethood which they knew well were true as he fulfilled the criteria of the HB itself, neither to address the issue of miracles, but to show them again how they lack integrity and use false pretexts to satisfy their whims.
Their books record that not only did they reject or kill prophets that practiced burnt offerings throughout Temple times, but they even almost killed a prophet whose sacrifice was consumed by the fire of God Himself, succeeding in killing contemporaneous prophets to him. In the days of the prophet Elijah, when they had already "abandoned the LORD's commands and have followed the Baals"
and despite Elijah's sacrifices being consumed by "the fire of the LORD" in front of them, he still had to flee for his life because
1kings18,19"The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too".
Polytheism was so widespread among the Israelites in that time that any person claiming prophethood and speaking against their spiritual degeneration would be put to death.
The Talmud speaks of hundreds of thousands, even millions of other prophets without naming them all and whose stories are omitted from the Tanakh because of the limited impact of their mission as compared to those chosen to be included in it. In the Tanakh itself, an allusion is often made of "prophets" without naming them, living and performing, alongside other prominent prophets. The Israelites, from their corrupt leaders and doctors of Law down to the populace are known for having pursued and persecuted, rejected, mocked, slandered, imprisoned, physically assaulted or even killed the prophets sent to them and telling them to adhere to their own books meaning there could have been many more by their own standards. The chapter of Nehemiah9 is very explicit in describing the Jews' attitudes towards the prophets but there is also Jer11:19,18:18-22,20:2,26:11,21,22,29:25,32:2-3,36:26,37:15,38:1-6, 1Kings12:4,18:4,19:10,22:26,2Chron16:10,24:21,Amos7:10-13.
In the NT, Jesus and others use very harsh words too when denouncing their rejection and killing of prophets Matt23:30-37,Mk12:1-12,Lk7:28,1Thess2:15,Acts7.
The killing of their prophets, as stated in the Quran was done "unjustly" ie knowingly and intentionally - not by mistake, ignorance or misunderstanding 2:87,3:21,181,183,5:70,33:69. The Quran further charges them, not only with the enormity of killing the prophets, but of also going after the righteous that stood by the prophets. That reality is also found depicted in the books of the Bible.
In a hadith the prophet says that
"The Children of Israel killed forty-three prophets in one hour at the start of the day. One hundred and seventy men of the Children of Israel then stood to command what is right against those who killed them and to forbid them from committing evil. They killed them all at the end of the same day. They are the ones God mentioned, Glorified and Majestic is He".
That attitude towards true prophets reached its peak after Solomon's reign, and more particularly under Ahab's rule and that of the queen Jezebel, when the vast majority of the nation had reverted to idol worship, a wicked trend that perdured after their reign and even when their kings attempted to make them mend their ways 1Kings22:44,2Kings15:35,2Chron33:17etc and would slay any person claiming prophethood and speaking against their practices
2Kings9:7,1Kings18:3-4"Obadiah was a devout believer in the Lord. While Jezebel was killing off the Lord’s prophets, Obadiah had taken a hundred prophets and hidden them in two caves, fifty in each, and had supplied them with food and water".
The prophet Elijah, after undoubtedly proving the truthfulness of his prophethood when a miraculous fire consumed his offering and not that of the false prophets of Baal, and consequently affirmed the truthfulness of all the other prophets contemporaneous to him that spoke in the name of God, lamented
1Kings19:14"I have been zealous for the Lord, the God of Hosts, for the Children of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, they have torn down Your altars, and they have killed Your prophets by the sword, and I alone remain, and they seek my soul to take it".
There had remained in that period only about 7000 Israelites that had stayed on the straight path and shunned polytheism, and were thus spared from being included in the divine curse of destruction 1Kings19:15-18. The prophet Isaiah was among their victims, murdered for having denounced the idolatry of the king Manasseh, his court, and nobles that had re-instated the polytheistic practices, and shrines, to a population already heavily inclined towards these wicked ways, that were abolished and destroyed under his predecessor, king Hezekiah's reign. Uriah would also be publicly executed by Joiakim the king of Judah, he was preaching at the same time as Jeremiah was, but the latter escaped the people's wrath several times due to his moving admonitions that touched the hearts of some of the elite despite all layers of society having forsaken and disregarded the Torah Jer2:8,8:8,5:13,26:11-24, until he was finally seized and almost murdered, astonishingly at a time where all his prophecies and warnings, towards his people materialized, showing how obdurate in their disbelief they were Jer38:1-6. It is interesting to note that the Babylonian king himself, the one who came to inflict destruction on the Jews as per Jeremiah's prophecies, was the one to free him from their grip and allow him to live in complete liberty Jer39:11-14,40:4. In his desperation in the face of the insults, derision, deadly plots he asked god to destroy his opponents Lam3:59-66.
Zechariah also was murdered, for the same reasons and through Jeremiah, God accuses them
Jer2:30"Your sword devoured your prophets like a destroying lion".
Jeremiah alludes in many places, in his preaching and admonitions to these unjust murders of prophets
Jer20:14"Cursed be the day in which I was begotten; the day in which my mother bore me shall not be blessed".
This is in reference to the day in which Hilkiah his father performed hastily the marriage act with his mother and fled from before Manasseh, who was slaying the prophets. Hosea would also lament over their mistreatment of God's prophets, lying in wait to execute their plots against them regardless of the sanctity of the location
Hos9:8"[for the] prophet [they lay] a fowler's snare on all his ways, [causing] hatred in the house of his God".
With such a wicked trend of violently rejecting and killing the prophets, it is no surprise that the Quran during the time of the prophet, blames even the Jews contemporary to Muhammad for that attitude. This is not only because they rejected yet another prophet in their midst, trying even to kill him, but also because they were still firm in their rejection of true prophets that preceded him, including Jesus whom they boasted of having killed. Just as when they rejected, opposed, killed the prophets sent to them from among themselves telling them to adhere to their own books, the Quran in several places shows that their excuses for rejecting, opposing and trying to kill this Ishmaelite prophet were in many cases the same that they used in the past. And besides, whether the Quran or their own scriptures through their prophets as well as the mouth of God directly, they have always been addressed as a single body and chastised as one person.
We see that pattern of starting their arguments with false premises that were contrary to principles in their own books many times, just so they could try and win an argument against the Muslims and the prophet. Sometimes the Quran would challenge them to bring the scriptural proof of a claim, at other times it assumed their premise true for argument’s sake, thus confounding them logically as described earlier.
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