Were there black prophets from the ones that were mentioned to us? We will actually find a few. One of them, historically speaking, is Suleiman (as), who is biblically described as having dark skin. In Bani Israel they had various skin colours because their origins were different. Some of them had Arabic origins, while other Egyptian and so on so forth. Sulaiman (as) came from the lineage of a black woman, Hagar (as).
Another is Prophet Musa (as), the man to whom Allah (swt) spoke directly and whom the Quran speaks about more than any other human being in history. Subhan’Allah! When Prophet Muhammad (sa) saw Musa (as), he did not say he was black – he said that Musa (as) resembled the people of Az-Zut or Shanyla (the two darkest tribes amongst the Arabs).
The Prophet (sa) said: “Musa (as) had the blackest skin.” So if you have a problem with people of darker skin, then you have a problem with Musa (as), a serious problem with Quran, and a severe problem with faith altogether.
How can a racist be a Muslim then? How can a racist be a believer? How can a racist say he loves Quran? The Prophet who you always have the most controversy about in history is Jesus (as) – Isa (as). His image has been politicized throughout history. Even in the earliest days of Christianity, the image that Jesus assumed dependent on the culture that Apostle Paul was preaching to: to the Persians, he looked like their Persian gods; to the Romans, he looked like Egyptian gods; to the Indians, he looked like Lord Vishnu.
What did Jesus (as) actually look like? Interestingly enough, we find a disagreement amongst the Sahabahs themselves. One of the Hadeeths is from Ibn Umar (rtam), according to which the Prophet (sa) said:
“While I was sleeping at the Kaaba, I saw a dark man, who was the most handsome of dark men I have ever seen.” He is praising the beauty of prophet Isa. He said: “He had hair that was reaching between his ears and his shoulder, like the most beautiful hair that you have ever seen. He combed his hair, and water was dripping from his hair, and he was leaning on two men, who were doing Tawaf around the Kaaba. So I asked: ‘Who is this?’ They said: ‘This is Al-Masih bin Maryam.’
Then I saw a man with wiry hair and who was blind in his right eye, as if it was a floating grape. And I said: ‘Who is this?’ And they said: ‘This is Al-Masih Ad-Dajjal.’ This is the Antichrist.”
Ibn Abbas, though, has a narration, where the Prophet (sa) says: “I saw Musa (as), Isa (as), and Ibrahim (as), and Isa (as) had a red complexion, curly hair and a broad chest. Musa (as) had a dark complexion, straight hair and a tall structure as if he was the people of Zut.”
Ibn Masud’s narration says that the Prophet (saw) spoke about Al-Masih Ad-Dajjal in front of the people – he said: “Allah (swt) is not one-eyed, while Ad-Dajjal is blind in the right eye.” Why? Because Dajjal will claim to be Allah (swt). And he said: “His right eye looked like a rotten grape.”
There is another narration from Umar ibn Khattab (rtam) and also in Bukhari where he said: “I swear by Allah that the Prophet (sa) did not say that Isa (as) had a red skin.”
We should not dispute like the Christians do about the colours of Isa (as), because it does not matter. We have conflicting narrations regarding it. The stronger of them obviously is that Isa (as) had dark skin, which would be more historically accurate, but it does not matter. That is the point here. This is part of the wisdom of not portraying the prophets of Allah (swt).
The Sahabahs did not ask much about this, and this is very significant. If you consider this, the Sahabah used to ask the Prophet (sa) about everything. But this did not concern them. So it should not become a politicized issue for us either.
Ali ibn Abi Talib (rtam) and Ibn Abbas (rtam) both said that Dhul-Qarnain was a black king. Obviously, Dhul-Qarnain is a controversial historical figure in and of itself, because we do not know if he was Alexander or Cyrus – Allah (swt) knows best. Again, it does not matter.
We know that there are prophets that Allah (swt) mentioned, and there are prophets that Allah (swt) did not mention in the Quran. The Prophet (sa) said that there were 124,000 prophets. According to an authentic Hadeeth, 315 amongst them were messengers. (Ahmad) You can imagine how they had different languages and different races, what they looked like, and where they were sent to. That would mean that there were African prophets, Indian prophets, Chinese prophets, and prophets that were sent to the Americas way before westerners reached there.
Allah (swt) says: “And We did not send any messenger except [speaking] in the language of his people to state clearly for them…” (Ibrahim 14:4)
This means the prophet was a person who walked with them, spoke with them, was just like them, and they could relate to.
“And they say, ‘What is this messenger that eats food and walks in the markets? Why was there not sent down to him an angel so he would be with him a warner?’” (Al-Furqan 25:7)
The important thing to remember is that Allah (swt) sent prophets, of various skin colour and language, to people all over the world.
Transcribed by Faiza Rizwan – Hiba’s volunteer and mother of four.
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