Timeline Of Leading Prophets

One my readers wondered whether I was shooting in the dark when I wrote that 4,000 years ago Makkah was unpopulated.  He, or perhaps she, went on saying that it would be nice to have timeline on the various prophets since Adam.

Well, I was not shooting in the dark, and as promised, here is the brief timeline.

Broadly speaking, we can divide the timeline of the prophets into four categories: (1) prehistoric, (2) ancient, (3) middle age, and (4) modern.

The prophets from Adam to Noah are prehistoric.  Any attempt to put dates on them would be superfluous.  Scholars put the time of Adam creation somewhere between 10,000 to 20,000 years ago.  As you can see, the gap is huge.  Modern scholars tend to put the date much earlier.  None of these is accurate.

In case you are interested, one Internet source estimates the date of Adam creation at 3760 BC.  That means not even 6,000 years ago.  The evolutionists would definitely disagree.  We don't need to agree with that estimate either, although we don't have to go with the evolutionists.

While at it, let's have some fun.  Adam was created 5772 years ago.  He lived for 930 years.  Enoch (Prophet Idris) was born in 3138 BC, or 622 years after Adam was created.  It means that when Enoch was born, Adam was still alive.

Noah was born in 2704 BC, or 126 years after Adam died.  In 2204 BC, he started to construct the ark, and one hundred years later, the great flood occurred.  Noah was 600 years old when the Flood occurred.

Noah lived for 950 years, which made him the longest living prophet.  But he did not live the longest.  It was his grandfather, Methusaleh, who was the longest living person.  Methusaleh lived for 969 years.

In case you are interested, here is the link for the above information which make for good reading but are not historically accurate.

While those information may not be accurate historically, there is one point worth noting.  The prehistoric people lived very long.  The evolution theory, however, says that early people's lifespan was very short, somewhere around 40 years or so. 

Quran says that Noah tarried the earth for 1,000 years minus 50, meaning 950 years, which agrees with Biblical account.  As a Muslim, I would rather go with the Quran, not evolution theory, as you should too. 

That said, those dating games should be used with caution.  About all we can say is that the early human beings lived very long, but when exactly Adam was created or when the Great Flood took place, these we leave to Allah. 

From Hud to Joseph, we can categorize them as ancient prophets.  Not much is known about Hud and Saleh as far as their times were concerned, but many sources are available about Abraham.  Most sources indicate that Abraham flourished about 4,000 years ago. 

According to Sultan Ghalib Al-Qu'aiti in his book "The Holy Cities, The Pilgrimage and The World of Islam," a 692 page compendium on Makkah and Madinah, tracing the history of these cities from the earliest traditions till 1925, Abraham was born around 2000 BC.  He said it was agreed by most computations (pg. 8).

Britannica Concise Encyclopaedia, Gale Encyclopaedia Of Biography and many others also give the same period.  But the link above, calculated based on Bible, estimates the date of Abraham's birth at 1812 BC. 

Since Bible is quite notorious for historical error, I would tend to think that year 2000 BC, thereabout, is more accurate. 

This ancient period ended with Joseph who lived around 3,600-3,700 years ago, thereabout.

The third period, middle age (not to be confused with European Middle Ages), started with Moses and ended with Jonah (Prophet Yunus).   Moses lived around 3,300-3,400 years ago, while Jonah lived around 2,700 years ago.  In this category we have Prophet Job (Nabi Ayyub) who was said to live around 2,500-2,600 years ago, according to Biblical account.  His name, however, comes before Moses according to Islamic placement of the 25 prophets.

In this category as well, we have King David and King Solomon (Propeht Dawood and Sulaiman).  Since they were also kings, in addition to being prophets, their dates are well known and agreed upon by most scholars.  David was born around 1040 BC and died in 970 BC.  Solomon was born around 1000 BC and died in 930 BC.  In other word, they lived around 3,000 years ago.

The modern prophets started with Zechariah (Prophet Zakariya) and ended with Muhammad.

Zechariah was born around 100 BC while John the Baptist (Prophet Yahya) was born a few years before the Christian Era.  Jesus marked the Christian Era, being born about 2,000 years ago, a few years after the birth of John the Baptist.  It is interesting to note that the actual date of birth of Jesus was not known.  Most place it around 4 BC although it should have been 1 AD.

Muhammad was born in 570 AD, according to most accounts, and died in 632 AD.