Belief in the Prophets and Messengers is one of the pillars of faith, not belief in the Messengers only

Praise
be to Allah

The belief that
is required is belief in both the Messengers and the Prophets, not only in
the Messengers. This is one of the givens of the faith. The pillars of
belief are explained in the Holy Qur’an.

Allah, may He be
exalted, says (interpretation of the meaning):

“Say, [O
believers], ‘We have believed in Allah and what has been revealed to us and
what has been revealed to Abraham and Ishmael and Isaac and Jacob and the
Descendants and what was given to Moses and Jesus and what was given to the
prophets from their Lord. We make no distinction between any of them, and we
are Muslims [in submission] to Him”

[al-Baqarah
2:136]

“Righteousness
is not that you turn your faces toward the east or the west, but [true]
righteousness is [in] one who believes in Allah , the Last Day, the angels,
the Book, and the prophets and gives wealth, in spite of love for it, to
relatives, orphans, the needy, the traveler, those who ask [for help], and
for freeing slaves; [and who] establishes prayer and gives zakah; [those
who] fulfill their promise when they promise; and [those who] are patient in
poverty and hardship and during battle. Those are the ones who have been
true, and it is those who are the righteous”

[al-Baarah
2:177].

Think about how
Allah enjoined upon the believers belief in all of the Messengers and
Prophets, of whom He named Ismaa‘eel (Ishmael), Ishaaq (Isaac) and the
Asbaat (translated above as the Descendents), and told us that the believers
do not make any distinction between any of the Prophets and Messengers;
rather they believe that anyone who denies the Prophethood of one whose
Prophethood was affirmed by Allah is a disbeliever, because disbelief in one
of the Messengers or Prophets is disbelief in all the Messengers.

Al-Qaadi ‘Iyaad
(may Allah have mercy on him) said:

The ruling on
the one who reviles any of the Prophets of Allah, may He be exalted, or
belittles them, or rejects the message they brought, or denies them, or
disbelieves in them, is the ruling of our Prophet (blessings and peace of
Allah be upon him). End quote.

Ash-Shifaa
(2/1097).

Shaykh al-Islam
Ibn Taymiyah (may Allah have mercy on him) said:

The Muslims
believe in all the Prophets and make no distinction between any of them.
Belief in all the Prophets is obligatory; whoever disbelieves in one of them
has disbelieved in all of them, and whoever reviles any of the Prophets is a
disbeliever, according to scholarly consensus. End quote.

As-Safadiyyah
(2/311)

Al-‘Allaamah
as-Sa‘di (may Allah have mercy on him) said in his commentary on the verse
quoted above from Soorat al-Baqarah:

From this we may
understand that we should believe in all the Books that were sent down to
all the Prophets, as well as in the Prophets in general and those whose
names are mentioned in this verse in particular, because of their honourable
position and because of the laws that they bought. What is required with
regard to belief in the Prophets and Books is that we should believe in them
in general terms, and with regard to those about whom more details are
given, we must believe in them in detail.

Tayseer
al-Kareem ar-Rahmaan
(p. 67)

With regard to
the famous hadith of Jibreel which was narrated by Imam Muslim (no. 8) from
‘Umar ibn al-Khattaab (may Allah be pleased with him), it says in it:
He said:
Tell me about faith (eemaan). He said: “It is to believe in Allah,
His angels, His Books, His Messengers, the Last Day, and to believe in
al-qadar (the divine will and decree), both good and bad.”

What is meant
here is not to restrict it to believing in the Messengers to the exclusion
of the Prophets; rather the word “Messengers” here includes the Prophets
too. The reason why the word “Messengers” appears on its own is that they
are more well-known, based on the verses quoted above, which indicates that
it is obligatory to believe in all the Prophets.

Differentiation
between the Prophets and Messengers does not apply in all cases; rather when
one of the two words is mentioned in the text, what is meant is both the
Prophets and Messengers. A distinction between them is only made when both
words appear in a single text.

And Allah knows
best.