There were no female prophets

6-12-2011 | IslamWeb

Question:

Did Allaah The Almighty send female messengers? How would you explain the fact that angels talked to Maryam (Mary), may Allaah exalt her mention?

---

Answer:

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 is His slave and Messenger.

 

Allaah The Almighty has never sent a female messenger. This is indicated in the verse where Allaah The Almighty says (what means): {And We sent not before you [as messengers] except men….} [Quran 12:109]

However, some scholars, such as Ibn Hazm, Al-Qurtubi and Abu Al-Hasan Al-Ash‘ari hold that Allaah The Almighty granted some women prophethood but without assigning a message to them. Their evidence is that Allaah The Almighty sent revelation to some women, as explained in the saying of Allaah The Almighty about Maryam: {Then We sent to her Our Angel…} [Quran 19:17]

Furthermore, Abu Al-Hasan Al-Ash‘ari stated that anyone who received a commandment, a prohibition or any information from Allaah The Almighty via an angel is a prophet. Therefore, Maryam and the mother of Moosa (Moses) were prophets. The response to this is that not every person that the angels spoke to was a prophet. This is indicated by a Hadeeth in which Allaah The Almighty sent an angel to ask a man about the reason why he would visit his brother in Islam. After listening to the answer, the angel said to this man that Allaah The Almighty loved him as a reward for loving the other man for the sake of Allaah. [Ahmad]

This is also the case in the famous Hadeeth in which Allaah The Almighty sent an angel to the blind man, the leprous man and the bald man. [Al-Bukhari and Muslim] Surely, these people were not prophets.

Furthermore, the revelation that come to Maryam and the mother of Moosa, may Allaah exalt their mention, might have occurred as a vision, which occurs also to people who are not prophets.

Allaah Knows best.