Muslims believe Allah sent messengers to every nation and that they all brought the same core message. Muhammad (ﷺ) said the prophets are brothers and their religion is one. The Hebrew Bible and the Gospels also speak of God sending prophets again and again, and Jesus counts himself among them.
What it is in Islam
The Quran says every nation had a messenger and that Muslims make no distinction among them. The Prophet (ﷺ) said their religion is one.
“And We certainly sent into every nation a messenger, [saying], ‘Worship Allah and avoid Taghut.’ And among them were those whom Allah guided, and among them were those upon whom error was [deservedly] decreed. So proceed through the earth and observe how was the end of the deniers.”
“Indeed, We have sent you with the truth as a bringer of good tidings and a warner. And there was no nation but that there had passed within it a warner.”
“And [We sent] messengers about whom We have related [their stories] to you before and messengers about whom We have not related to you.”
“‘We make no distinction between any of His messengers.’”
“The prophets are paternal brothers; their mothers are different, but their religion is one.”
Narrated by Abu Huraira. English as shown on sunnah.com.
In the earlier scriptures
Passages are the King James Version unless marked otherwise. Each carries a tag: a close parallel, a shared principle, or an interpretation (Muslim or traditional), which is a reading we offer as a reading and not as a proven fact.
“Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.”
God does nothing without revealing his secret to his servants the prophets. The Quran says there was a warner in every nation (35:24).
“Since the day that your fathers came forth out of the land of Egypt unto this day I have even sent unto you all my servants the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them:”
God sent all his servants the prophets, “daily rising up early and sending them”. Compare the Quran’s “a messenger in every nation” (16:36).
“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee,”
Jesus says the prophets were killed and stoned.
“God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets,”
God spoke “at sundry times and in divers manners” through the prophets. This is the Islamic view of a line of messengers over time.
“But Jesus said unto them, A prophet is not without honour, but in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house.”
Jesus speaks of himself in the line of the prophets.
“And the multitude said, This is Jesus the prophet of Nazareth of Galilee.”
The crowd calls Jesus “the prophet of Nazareth of Galilee”.
“And he said unto them, What things? And they said unto him, Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people:”
Two disciples call him “a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people”.
Where this page stands: a line of prophets sent by God is in the Hebrew Bible and in the Gospels. The last messenger, Muhammad (ﷺ), is not in these passages, and we do not claim he is.
Where the scriptures differ
The Letter to the Hebrews calls Jesus God’s Son in a divine sense. Islam teaches that Jesus is a messenger, born of Mary, and that Muhammad is the last prophet. We show the passage, then the Quran’s own words.
“Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;”
The same passage goes on to say God spoke “by his Son” and that the worlds were made through him. Christians read this as the divinity of Jesus. Islam does not.
“The Messiah, son of Mary, was not but a messenger; [other] messengers have passed on before him. And his mother was a supporter of truth. They both used to eat food. Look how We make clear to them the signs; then look how they are deluded.”
“The Messiah, Jesus, the son of Mary, was but a messenger of Allah and His word which He directed to Mary and a soul [created at a command] from Him.”
“Muhammad is not the father of [any] one of your men, but [he is] the Messenger of Allah and last of the prophets. And ever is Allah, of all things, Knowing.”
Sources
Quran (Sahih International, via api.alquran.cloud; links go to quran.com)
Hadith (English from sunnah.com)
Hebrew Bible and New Testament (King James Version, text via bible-api.com; links go to BibleGateway)