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and the first of them was Noah—peace be upon him—and the last of them is Muhammad—may Allah bless him and grant him peace. The evidence that Noah was the first is the Almighty’s statement:
Faith in the messengers is one of the pillars of iman (faith). One must therefore affirm belief in every single messenger, from the first to the last; whoever denies even one of them is a disbeliever in them all, as Allah says: “Indeed, those who disbelieve in Allah and His messengers, and seek to make a distinction between Allah and His messengers, saying, ‘We believe in some and reject others,’ and wish to adopt a position in between – they are truly the disbelievers, and We have prepared for the disbelievers a humiliating punishment” (al-Nisa 4:150-151). Consequently, belief must encompass all the messengers, both those Allah has named in His Book and those He has not, for they were numerous. A hadith states that their total number is 124,000 prophets, of whom 315 were messengers, a considerable multitude. Thus, there were many messengers, some named in the Quran and others unnamed, and we are obliged to believe in them all, from the first to the last.
َوَأَّولُهُمْ نُوحٌ ﵇، وَآخِرُهُمْ مُحَمَّدٌ ﷺ، والدليل على أن أولهم نوح ﵇ قوله تعالى:
فالإيمان بالرسل هو أحد أركان الإيمان، فلا بد من الإيمان بالرسل جميعهم من أولهم إلى آخرهم، فمن جحد رسولا واحدًا منهم فهو كافر بالجميع كما قال تعالى: ﴿إِنَّ الَّذِينَ يَكْفُرُونَ بِاللَّهِ وَرُسُلِهِ وَيُرِيدُونَ أَنْ يُفَرِّقُوا بَيْنَ اللَّهِ وَرُسُلِهِ وَيَقُولُونَ نُؤْمِنُ بِبَعْضٍ وَنَكْفُرُ بِبَعْضٍ وَيُرِيدُونَ أَنْ يَتَّخِذُوا بَيْنَ ذَلِكَ سَبِيلًا أُولَئِكَ هُمُ الْكَافِرُونَ حَقًّا وَأَعْتَدْنَا لِلْكَافِرِينَ عَذَابًا مُهِينًا﴾ [النساء: ١٥٠ - ١٥١] فلا بد من الإيمان بجميع الرسل من أولهم إلى آخرهم، من سمى الله منهم في كتابه ومن لم يسم، فإن الرسل كثيرون؛ ولهذا جاء في الحديث: «أن عددهم مائة ألف وأربعة وعشرون ألفا، الرسل من ذلك ثلاثمائة وخمسة عشر جما غفيرا» .
فهم رسل كثيرون منهم من سمى الله في كتابه ومنهم من لم يسم، فيجب علينا الإيمان بجميعهم من أولهم إلى آخرهم.