life; and therefore he is the model to be followed. It is the prophet’s example that inspires a living faith in the hearts of his followers and brings about a real transformation in their lives. That is why the Holy Qur’ān lays special stress on the fact that the prophet must be a human being: “Had there been in the earth angels walking about secure, We would have sent down to them an angel from the heaven as a messenger” (17:95); “And We sent not before thee any but men to whom We sent revelation … Nor did We give them bodies not eating food.” (21:7, 8). If, then, even an angel cannot serve as a model for men, much less would God Himself serve that purpose, even if it were possible that he should come in the flesh. The doctrine of incarnation is, therefore, rejected, because God-incarnate would serve no purpose in the reformation of man; seeing that man has to face temptations at every step, but there is no temptation for God.

Universality of the institution of prophethood

Prophethood is a free Divine gift to man, a mauhiba,6 according to the Holy Qur’ān. Just as He has granted His gifts of physical sustenance to all men alike, so His spiritual gift of prophethood, through which a spiritual life is awakened in man, is also a free gift to all the nations of the world. It is not among the Israelites alone that prophets were raised as would appear from the Bible. According to the Holy Qur’ān, there is not one nation in the world in which a prophet has not appeared: “There is not a people but a warner has gone among them” (35:24). And again: “For every nation there is a messenger” (10:47). We are further told that there have been prophets besides those mentioned in the Holy Qur’ān: “And We sent messengers We have mentioned to thee before, and messengers We have not mentioned to thee” (4:164). It is, in fact, stated in a ḥadīth that there have been 124,000 prophets, while the Holy Qur’ān contains only about twenty-five names, among them being several non-Biblical prophets, Hūd and Ṣāliḥ in Arabia, Luqmān in Ethiopia, a contemporary of Moses (generally known as Khidzr) in Sūdān, and Dhu-l-Qarnain (Darius I, who was also a king) in Persia; all of which is quite in accordance with the theory of the universality of prophethood. And as the Holy Book has plainly said that prophets have appeared in all nations and that it has not named all of them,