Number of the Prophets and Prophets Mentioned in the Qur'an

Allah the Almighty has granted human, who is the most honorable of all creatures, many abilities such as reason, will, thinking and understanding, besides He also sent prophets to every society starting from the first human Adam (as), to the Last Prophet Muhammad (saw). In this respect, it is said in the Qur'an, "There was no nation but that there had passed within it a warner." (Fatir, 35/24), and "For every nation is a messenger." (Yunus, 10/47): In the Holy Qur'an, no information on the number of the prophets is given. In a hadith, it is stated that the number of the prophets was 124,000 (or 224,000) and 315 of them were "rasul".  (Ibn Hanbal, V, 266) However, as these hadiths are related to one companion, they are insufficient for providing certain information.

The names of 25 prophets referred to as "nabi" or "rasul" are present in the Holy Qur'an. These prophets are Adam, Idris, Nuh, Ibrahim, Ismael, Ishaq, Yaqub, Yusuf, Lut, Hud, Saleh, Shu'ayb, Musa, Harun, Ilyas, Alyasa, Dhul-Kifl, Yunus, Ayyub, Dawud, Sulayman, Zakariyya, Yahya, Isa, and Muhammad (saw) (Adam, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Lot, Eber, Salah, Jethro, Moses, Aaron, Elijah, Ezekiel, Yunus, Job, David, Solomon, Zechariah, John, Jesus, Muhammad (saw)). 

It is controversial if three people named Uzair (Ezra), Luqman, and Dhul-Qarnain that the Holy Qur'an gives information about are prophets or not. But there is no doubt that these three are great people.

The prophets sent by Allah are not limited to the prophets whose names are mentioned in the Holy Qur'an. In this respect, with the verse, "And We have already sent messengers before you. Among them are those [whose stories] We have related to you, and among them are those [whose stories] We have not related to you..."(Ghafir, 40/78) it is clearly stated that names of all the prophets were not revealed to Prophet Muhammad (saw). While it is not compulsory to know the accurate number of the prophets, it is sufficient to have faith in them all. For this reason, without specifying a number about the prophets, it is better to say "I have believed in all the prophets from Adam (as) to Prophet Muhammad (saw), I accepted that all of them were right and real." (Kılavuz, Ahmet Saim vd., İlmihâl, I/110)