Our Legends: Luminaries Who Revived Islam

In a sweeping and vivid survey, renowned historian Bernard Lewis charts the history of the Middle East over the last 2,000 years, from the birth of Christianity through the modern era, focusing on the successive transformations that have shaped it.

The exact number of prophets and messengers sent by Allah is not known, but the Qur’an makes clear that all of the prophets were sent to various nations to preach Islamic monotheism. Muslims believe that all the Divine Messengers ? including those in common with Judaism and Christianity ? conveyed the same message of true monotheism and submission to the one God, Allah. Belief in these prophets and messengers is an essential part of the Islamic faith and Muslims do not differentiate between them, according them all the same respect and reverence.

In this book, the stories of the prophets have been compiled from ‘Al-Bidayah wan-Nihayah’ (The Beginning and the End) which is a great work of the famous Muslim exegete and historian Ibn Kathir and has a prominent place in the Islamic literature. The stories of the prophets and all the events in their lives have been supported by the Qur’anic Verses and the Sunnah (traditions) of the Prophet (S). Wherever it was necessary, other sources have also been reported for the sake of historical accounts, but on such places a comparative study has been made to prove the authenticity of the sources. Ibn Kathir has reproduced the views and interpretations of all the great exegetes of the Qur’an of his time. The systemic narratives of the Stories of the Prophets have been written in chronological order which renders a historical style to the book.