Islamic Thought and Sources
Humanness of Prophets: The Quranic Prophetology
Author(s): Abdul Majid Daryabadi
Reviewed by: Abdur Raheem Kidwai
Review
Publisher: (translated by Abdul Kader Choughley). Aligarh, India: K. A. Nizami Centre for Quranic Studies, Aligarh Muslim University in association with Ahsan Academy, Springs, South Africa, 2022, 93pp. ISBN: 978939160379.
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The book under review is the English version of the renowned Indian Qur’anic scholar Abdul Majid Daryabadi’s (1892–1977) slim, yet thought-provoking and non-conventional work in Urdu, Bashariyyat al-Anbiya’ published in 1959. As Daryabadi pertinently points out: “The Quranic Prophetology has received due attention in Muslim scholarship. A spate of works spell out their august of ce, their exalted status and their distinctions. However, this discussion has eclipsed an important aspect of the Prophets – their humanness ... The general impression somehow is that the Prophets were superhumans, transcended their humanness and were almost divine ... not subject to the basic human needs of hunger and thirst, climatic rigours, fear, anger and limited knowledge... It must be emphasized that the Quran has projected the Prophets as human beings. It has meticulously brought to light each and every aspect of their humanness” (p. 71).