A Covenant and the Prophets

S 33:7 And when we took from the prophets their covenant and from you and from Nuh and Ibrahim and Musa and Isa son of Maryam and we took from them a thick covenant

A covenant was supposedly 'taken from' the prophets, and from the author. It was taken also from Nuh, Ibrahim, Musa and Isa. What are we to understand? If the author, Nuh, Ibrahim, Musa and Isa were all supposed to be prophets, why are they mentioned after mentioning 'the prophets'? Was a different, a 'thick' covenant, taken from the others?

From an Answering Islam article:

What makes this interesting is that the Quran asserts that Allah took a covenant from the prophets to assist an unnamed messenger who was to come:

It is not (possible) that a man, to whom is given the Book, and Wisdom, and the prophetic office, should say to people: "Be ye my worshippers rather than God’s": on the contrary (He would say) "Be ye worshippers of Him Who is truly the Cherisher of all: For ye have taught the Book and ye have studied it earnestly." Nor would he instruct you to take angels and prophets for Lords and patrons. What! would he bid you to unbelief after ye have bowed your will (To God in Islam)? Behold! God took the covenant of the prophets, saying: "I give you a Book and Wisdom; then comes to you an apostle, confirming what is with you; do ye believe in him and render him help." God said: "Do ye agree, and take this my Covenant as binding on you?" They said: "We agree." He said: "Then bear witness, and I am with you among the witnesses." S. 3:79-81 Y. Ali

Other versions render Sura 3:81 slightly different:

AND, LO, God accepted, THROUGH THE PROPHETS, this solemn pledge [from the followers of earlier revelation]: "If, after all the revelation and the wisdom which I have vouchsafed unto you, there comes to you an apostle confirming the truth already in your possession, you must believe in him and succour him. Do you" - said He – "acknowledge and accept My bond on this condition?" They answered: "We do acknowledge it." Said He: "Then bear witness [thereto], and I shall be your witness." S. 3:81 Asad

Asad noted:

Lit., "the solemn pledge of the prophets". Zamakhshari holds that what is meant here is a pledge taken from the community as a whole: a pledge consisting in their acceptance of the messages conveyed through the prophets. (Source)

The late Muhammad Ali translated it similarly to Asad:

And when Allah made a covenant THROUGH THE PROPHETS: Certainly what I have been given you of Book and Wisdom – then a Messenger comes to you verifying that which is with you, you shall believe in him, and you shall aid him. He said: Do you affirm and accept My compact in this (matter)? They said: We do affirm. He said: Then bear witness that I (too) am of the bearers of witness with you. M. Ali (Source)

Ali explains the reason for his formulation in a footnote:

81a. Mithaq al-nabiyyin means literally the covenant of the prophets, and may therefore signify either the covenant of the prophets with Allah or the covenant of the prophets with their people. As the words that follow are plainly addressed to the people, the Jews and the Christians being particularly addressed in the last two verses, I adopt the latter interpretation, and therefore translate the words as meaning a covenant through the prophets. Both Moses and Jesus especially laid an obligation on their people to accept the prophet about whom they prophesied. Thus, through Moses, Almighty God had warned the Israelites, after promising them "a prophet from among their brethren like unto thee", and that "Whosoever will not hearken unto My words which he shall speak in My name, I will require of him" (Deut. 18:19). And Jesus was equally emphatic when, prophesying the advent of the Comforter, he added: "He will guide you into all the truth; for he shall not speak of himself, but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak" (John 16:13). As a matter of fact the Prophet had his advent foretold by all the prophets of the world. The new Testament bears testimony to this: "Whom the heaven must receive until the time of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all of His holy prophets since the world began. For Moses truly said unto the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me: him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you" (Acts 3:21, 22). The covenant referred to was made through each prophet separately as he appeared in the world. And just as all the prophets foretold the advent of the Prophet Muhammad and laid an obligation upon their people to accept him, so the Prophet Muhammad also told his followers to believe in all the prophets that had appeared among different people in different ages, and this is stated in what follows. The truth of the first statement that all the prophets foretold the advent of the Prophet Muhammad is borne out by the second statement that the Prophet would bear testimony to the truth of all the prophets of the world. (Source)

What makes Ali’s comments all the more ironic is that he was an Ahmadiyya, a sect whose founder Mirza Ghulam Ahmad claimed to be another prophet after Muhammad and the promised Messiah. We will see why this is ironic shortly. Ali’s view is the typical one espoused by Muslims, that the messenger whom the others had to confirm was Muhammad.

However, what these Muslims fail to mention is that the Quran duly states that Muhammad happened to be one of these very prophets from whom Allah took a covenant:

The Prophet is closer to the believers than their selves, and his wives are (as) their mothers. And the owners of kinship are closer one to another in the ordinance of Allah than (other) believers and the fugitives (who fled from Mecca), except that ye should do kindness to your friends. This is written in the Book (of nature). And when We exacted a covenant from the prophets, and from thee (O Muhammad) and from Noah and Abraham and Moses and Jesus son of Mary. We took from them a solemn covenant; That He may ask the loyal of their loyalty. And He hath prepared a painful doom for the unfaithful. S. 33:6-8 Pickthall

The only other reference to Allah’s covenant with or through the prophets is Sura 3:81. Therefore, if this text is interpreted in light of what is stated in Surah 3:81 then it is quite apparent that Allah took a covenant from Muhammad as well, which means that he too, as well as his community, had to uphold the messenger who would come to confirm the Scriptures given to all the prophets.

The Quran’s incoherence on this point has allowed for specific Muslims to argue that Allah intended to send at least one more messenger after Muhammad. One such person was the late Rashad Khalifa who was murdered by bloodthirsty Muslims. The readers can even see some of the arguments used by both himself and his followers and read for themselves how they have been able to successfully use Suras 3:81, 33:7 and 40 to their advantage: http://www.submission.org/messenger/

The author of the Quran could have avoided all this confusion, thereby preventing individuals from using these references to support their claim, by simply inserting the name of Muhammad or by saying that Muhammad was the last messenger. In other words, the author could have written Sura 3:81 to say that a messenger is coming whose name is such and such, explicitly mentioning that messenger by name, much like the words he put into the mouth of Jesus:

And call to mind when Jesus, son of Mary, said, ‘O children of Israel, surely, I am ALLAH's Messenger unto you, fulfilling that which is before me of the prophecies of the Torah, and giving glad tidings of a Messenger who will come after me, his name being Ahmad. And when he came to them with clear proofs, they said, this is manifest sorcery.’ Sura 61:6

(Note: Even this passage’s meaning is debated since it is not certain whether this is giving the proper name of someone to come, or is simply giving a specific description of that person. For more on these points please read this article.)

Or it could have said in Sura 33:40 that Muhammad was the last prophet and the last messenger. Unfortunately for orthodox Muslims, the Quran clearly failed to use such language.

As it stands, certain sects have capitalized (quite successfully we might add) on the Quran’s incoherence and incompleteness, specifically in its failure to state more explicitly and clearly that Muhammad was the last messenger. Was Muhammad the Last Messenger?