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Fatwa CenterThere were no female prophets
Question
Did Allaah The Almighty send female messengers? How would you explain the fact that angels talked to Maryam (Mary), may Allaah exalt her mention?
Answer
All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad 
is His slave and Messenger.
Allaah The Almighty has never sent a female messenger. This is indicated in the verse where Allaah The Almighty says (what means): {And We sent not before you [as messengers] except men….} [Quran 12:109]
However, some scholars, such as Ibn Hazm, Al-Qurtubi and Abu Al-Hasan Al-Ash‘ari 
hold that Allaah The Almighty granted some women prophethood but without assigning a message to them. Their evidence is that Allaah The Almighty sent revelation to some women, as explained in the saying of Allaah The Almighty about Maryam: {Then We sent to her Our Angel…} [Quran 19:17]
Furthermore, Abu Al-Hasan Al-Ash‘ari 
stated that anyone who received a commandment, a prohibition or any information from Allaah The Almighty via an angel is a prophet. Therefore, Maryam and the mother of Moosa (Moses) 
were prophets. The response to this is that not every person that the angels spoke to was a prophet. This is indicated by a Hadeeth in which Allaah The Almighty sent an angel to ask a man about the reason why he would visit his brother in Islam. After listening to the answer, the angel said to this man that Allaah The Almighty loved him as a reward for loving the other man for the sake of Allaah. [Ahmad]
This is also the case in the famous Hadeeth in which Allaah The Almighty sent an angel to the blind man, the leprous man and the bald man. [Al-Bukhari and Muslim] Surely, these people were not prophets.
Furthermore, the revelation that come to Maryam and the mother of Moosa, may Allaah exalt their mention, might have occurred as a vision, which occurs also to people who are not prophets.
Allaah Knows best.
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