# Could Socrates or the Buddha have been prophets?

*Could Socrates, the Buddha or Confucius have been prophets?*

- URL: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/1zghntbmpis/s/29/
- Date: 2021-01-12 · Kind: question · Transcript tier: machine · Recording: Monday Nights with Mufti #197 | Q&A Unscripted & Unrestricted! 😉 | Mufti Abu Layth (1:50:22–1:51:38)
- Status: general teaching
- Watch from the start of the segment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zgHntbMPis&t=6622s
- Recording page: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/1zghntbmpis/

**Topics:** Prophethood and miracles

**Question as asked:** Your views on influential people in history that could be prophets, e.g. Socrates, Plato, Buddha?

**Summary (not a quotation; machine-made, unchecked):** Mufti Abu Layth believes figures such as the Buddha, Socrates and Zarathustra could have been prophets, though we cannot know since Islam does not mention them.

**Checked position (checked by two independent reviews, not by the channel):** Mufti Abu Layth says he believes figures such as the Buddha and Socrates could have been prophets, though we just don't know.

**Evidence, his words at 1:50:22:** “i believe socrates could have been a prophet in fact his whole thing is quite prophetic uh confucius could have been um i don't what i'm saying is that we just don't know” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zgHntbMPis&t=6622s)

## Longer summary

A question asks his views on influential people in history who could have been prophets, such as Socrates, Plato and the Buddha. Mufti Abu Layth says he believes some of them could have been prophets: the Buddha could have been, Socrates could have been and his whole thing is quite prophetic, and Confucius and Zarathustra could have been, as could many Hindu figures. He stresses that we just don't know, since Islam simply does not mention them.

## Sources and names cited

- Socrates
- Plato
- the Buddha
- Confucius
- Zarathustra

## Transcript (machine tier, 1:50:22–1:51:38)

[1:49:42] from them how does the i work is extra mission information you don't need to take that from imam bukhari or imam malik or something so yeah i hope that's a you know that answers that question for many people cool let's go on aura um multiple eighth your views on influential people in history that could be prophets uh eg socrates plato buddha yeah i believe these people could have been prophets i mean not all of them but i believe like the buddha

[1:50:21] could have been a prophet i believe socrates could have been a prophet in fact his whole thing is quite prophetic uh confucius could have been um i don't what i'm saying is that we just don't know zarathustra could have been a prophet um yeah we just don't know many hindu um you know figures could have they could have been prophets i mean we just obviously islam just doesn't mention

[1:51:00] them uh all right so opinion on abdul rahman hassan he seems very intelligent masha'allah why is he stuck in this dogmatism you see there's a difference between you see being clever at something

[1:51:37] and being a person of of of reason these are not necessarily um the same thing i mean there may be an overlap in some cases but they're not necessarily the same so just like you could get somebody that doesn't have so thinking if you take thinking they it has different layers to it as i mean this is one of the structures that is presented throughout the educational spectrum so you would have lower order thinking skills and you have higher order thinking skills so lower order thinking skills are just

## Cite

Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment 1zgHntbMPis/s/29. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/1zghntbmpis/s/29/

Not a fatwa: these answers were given to specific people at specific times. Ask a qualified scholar about your own situation.