We all know that Allaah The Almighty Sent His Messengers, May Allaah Exalt their mention, to guide people and bring them out from darkness to the light. Allaah The Almighty Sent a messenger to every nation. My question is: What is the wisdom behind sending two or more prophets in the same period of time such as Daawood (David) and Sulaymaan (Solomon), ‘Eesa (Jesus), Zakariyya and Yahya, Moosa (Moses) and Haaroon (Aaron), Ibraaheem (Abraham), Ismaa‘eel (Ishmael) and Is-haaq (Isaac), Ya‘qoob (Jacob) and Yoosuf (Joseph)? Should there not be an interval between the messengers so that every one of them could cover a specific period of time? May Allaah Reward you.

All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, is His Slave and Messenger.

Actually, Allaah The Almighty Sent the Prophets, May Allaah Exalt their mention, to people in order to establish the proof so that they (i.e. people) would have no argument against Allaah on the Day of Resurrection, and say that there came to them no messenger to inform them that they must worship Allaah. Allaah The Almighty Says (what means): {O People of the Scripture, there has come to you Our Messenger to make clear to you [the religion] after a period [of suspension] of messengers, lest you say, "There came not to us any bringer of good tidings or a warner.} [Quran 5:19]

Additionally, there are so much wisdom behind sending more than one messenger in the same period of time such as:

1. Every prophet was sent to his people only. The Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, explained this fact saying: “I was given five things which were not given to anyone else before me.” And mentioned among them: “Every Prophet used to be sent to his nation only, but I have been sent to all mankind.” [Al-Bukhari and Muslim] So, there had to be more than one messenger at the same time for there were more than one nation.

2. Every prophet used to be sent in the language of his people. Allaah The Almighty Says (what means): {And We Did not Send any messenger except [speaking] in the language of his people to state clearly for them.} [Quran 14:4] So, there was a need to have more than one messenger at the same time for having more than one language.

3. The prophet may need some help from someone else as what happened in the case of Prophet Moosa who asked Allaah The Almighty to Let his brother Haaroon help him in his mission. Allaah The Almighty Says on his (i.e. Moosa's) behalf (what means): {And my brother Haaroon is more fluent than me in tongue, so Send him with me as support, verifying me. Indeed, I fear that they will deny me.} [Quran 28:34]

4. The people to whom the messenger was sent might have gone to extremes in misguidance and thus this would require more than one messenger to establish the proof on them. This is exactly what happened with the people of the city which belied their two messengers so Allaah The Almighty Reinforced them (i.e. the two messengers) with a third messenger. Allaah The Almighty Says (what means): {And present to them an example: the people of the city, when the messengers came to it. When We Sent to them two but they denied them, so We Strengthened them with a third, and they said, "Indeed, we are messengers to you.} [Quran 36:13-14]

5. Moreover, among these good reasons is to form an uninterrupted sequence of messengers to preserve the Sharee‘ah from being forgotten. That is to say, whenever a messenger dies, another should be sent before his death. That is what happened in the case of Daawood and Sulaymaan and that of Zakariyya, Yahya and ‘Eesa.

Finally, there may be many good reasons behind that but they are beyond our knowledge and what we have mentioned is sufficient.

Allaah Knows best.