Dr. Muzammil Siddiqi, former president of the Islamic Society of North America, states the following: Allah has mentioned in the Qur’an that He sent Messengers and guides among all people. Allah Almighty says: “ And verily We have raised in every nation a messenger, (proclaiming): Serve Allah and shun false gods. Then some of them (there were) whom Allah guided, and some of them (there were) upon whom error had just hold. Do but travel in the land and see the nature of the consequence for the deniers!.” (An-Nahl: 36) He Almighty also says, “There was not any community except a Warner who lived among them.” (Fatir :24). However, the Qur’an did not give us the names and stories of all the Messengers and Prophets who were sent by Allah to various nations and groups. We have only 25 Prophets and Messengers who are mentioned in the Qur’an by name. About other Prophets and Messengers Allah Almighty says, “And messengers We have mentioned unto thee before and messengers We have not mentioned unto thee …” (An-Nisaa’: 164)
We Muslims believe in all Allah’s Prophets and Messengers who came before Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him. Prophet Muhammad was the Last Prophet and Messenger of Allah. We mention by names only those Prophets and Messengers whose names are given to us in the Qur’an and authentic Sunnah. But those, whose names are not mentioned in the Qur’an and Sunnah we do not say definitely that they were Allah’s Prophets or Messengers.
In his Musnad, Imam Ahmad Ibn Hanbal has stated that Allah sent 124, 000 Prophets, and from among them 315 were Messengers. It seems that on the basis of what Imam Ahmad mentioned in his Musnad, we have this number circulated in Islamic literature.
However, there is no list of names of all the Prophets and Messengers available. Allah knows best who they were and when or where they lived. We only know this much that wherever there exist any concept of monotheism or Tawhid, truth, justice, righteousness and virtue, it must have come from Allah through His noble Prophets and Messengers. Also wherever there is any concept of Shirk, evil, injustice and corruption, it must be from the Satan and his suggestions in human mind.”