His Brothers, the Prophets

One religion across the ages, though their laws differed.

• He said: 'I am the most worthy of ʿĪsā, son of Maryam, in this world and the Hereafter. The prophets are brothers of one father; their mothers are different, but their religion is one.'Bukhārī & Muslim
• He described the prophets as a single brotherhood whose call never changed: to worship Allah alone. He came not to abolish them but to confirm and complete the one message they all carried.Cf. Qur'an 42:13

On the Night Journey, the prophets stood behind him at al-Aqṣā.

• On the night he was carried to Jerusalem, all the prophets were gathered, and he ﷺ led them in prayer at the Sacred House, the imam of the prophets.Muslim
• It was a passing of the trust: those who had each guided their nations now prayed behind the one sent as a mercy to all the worlds.The Seerah

Ascending through the heavens, he greeted his brothers one by one.

• In his ascension he met Ādam in the first heaven, ʿĪsā and Yaḥyā in the second, Yūsuf in the third, Idrīs in the fourth, Hārūn in the fifth, and Mūsā in the sixth, each welcoming him as the righteous brother and the righteous prophet.Bukhārī & Muslim
• In the seventh heaven he found Ibrāhīm (as) reclining against the Frequented House (al-Bayt al-Maʿmūr), into which seventy thousand angels enter each day, never to return.Bukhārī & Muslim

He honoured Mūsā deeply, claimed kinship with his cause, and forbade exalting himself over him.

• Arriving in Madinah, he found the Jews fasting on ʿĀshūrāʾ for the day Allah saved Mūsā from Pharaoh, and said, 'We have more right to Mūsā than you,' and fasted it and ordered it to be fasted.Bukhārī & Muslim
• He taught humility even toward himself, saying, 'Do not give me superiority over Mūsā,' and 'It does not befit a servant to say that I am better than Yūnus ibn Mattā.'Bukhārī & Muslim
• Passing by where Mūsā had been, he spoke of seeing him standing in prayer, a man of strong build, as if he were before him.Muslim

He resembled Ibrāhīm, named his son after him, and called himself the answer to his prayer.

• Of all people he most resembled Ibrāhīm (as); on the Night Journey he said, 'I have never seen a man more like myself.'Bukhārī
• He named his infant son Ibrāhīm, and on the boy's death said his tears were mercy, for the heart grieves yet says only what pleases the Lord.Bukhārī & Muslim
• He described himself as the answer to Ibrāhīm's supplication and the glad tidings of ʿĪsā, the two ends of prophethood meeting in him.Musnad Aḥmad

He was the nearest of people to ʿĪsā, foretold by him, and spoke of his return at the end of time.

• He said: 'I am the nearest of people to ʿĪsā, son of Maryam; there has been no prophet between him and me.'Bukhārī & Muslim
• He foretold that ʿĪsā (as) would descend as a just judge, break the cross, and that under him the one true religion of all the prophets would prevail in peace.Bukhārī & Muslim
• ʿĪsā had himself given glad tidings of a messenger to come after him, whose name is Aḥmad.Qur'an 61:6

He honoured Nūḥ as the first messenger to the people of the earth, and his long patience.

• On the Day of Resurrection, he said, the people will go to Ādam, who will send them on to Nūḥ, 'the first messenger Allah sent to the people of the earth.'Bukhārī & Muslim
• He spoke of Nūḥ's centuries of patient calling, and how on that Day this ummah will bear witness that Nūḥ conveyed his message.Bukhārī

He praised the lineage of Yūsuf and his patience through trial.

• Asked who is the most noble of people, he answered, 'The noble, son of the noble, son of the noble, son of the noble: Yūsuf, son of Yaʿqūb, son of Isḥāq, son of Ibrāhīm.'Bukhārī
• He marvelled at the patience of Yūsuf, who, had he been in prison as long, would have answered the call to leave at once.Bukhārī

He saw himself as the final stone in a structure the prophets had been building since Ādam.

• He said, 'My likeness and that of the prophets before me is a man who built a beautiful house but left the place of one brick; people would marvel at it and say, only if this brick were set. I am that brick, and I am the seal of the prophets.'Bukhārī & Muslim
• On the Day of Resurrection, when people go in turn to Ādam, Nūḥ, Ibrāhīm, Mūsā and ʿĪsā seeking relief, each will humbly send them onward, until they come to him ﷺ, and the great intercession will be his.Bukhārī & Muslim
• He said, 'I am the master of the children of Ādam on the Day of Resurrection, and no boast,' a station of honour he used only to serve them.Muslim