Aadam Did Not Send Other Prophets In His Own Name

8-1-2020 | IslamWeb

Question:

Assalaamoalaikum, there is a Muslim minority claiming that Adam might have sent other prophets in his own name, i.e. in Adam's name. Is that possible? I alaways thought that prophets can only be sent by Allah (SWT) and that He sends them in His name. Please clarify.

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Answer:

All perfect praise be to Allah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah, and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger.

Prophets and messengers are sent by Allah, The Almighty, and not by human beings. However, a prophet may send a messenger from his companions to communicate the religion, as the Prophet, did when he sent his honorable Companions to various provinces. For instance, he sent Mu‘aath and Abu Moosa Al-Ash‘ari to Yemen and said to them: "Facilitate things for people and do not make things difficult for them, give people good tidings and do not fill them with aversion, and obey one another and avoid disagreement." [Al-Bukhaari and Muslim]

Allah, The Exalted, 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] In the commentary on the verses, it was said that these messengers were the disciples of ‘Eesa (Jesus), may Allaah exalt his mention, which he sent to the people of Antioch to call them to Allah. Allah, The Exalted, attributed sending them to Himself as He Says (what means): {When We sent to them two…} because ‘Eesa sent them at the command of Allah, The Almighty.

As for saying that Aadam sent someone to invite people to Allah, we do not know of anything reported in the Sunnah in this regard. Moreover, Aadam is the father of all mankind and his offspring had not yet spread out across the earth. In brief, this cannot be stated (as a fact) except with supportive textual evidence from the Quran or the Sunnah to that effect, and we do not know of anything regarding that.

Allah Knows best.