CONCEPTS RELATED TO PROPHETHOOD

Belief in the prophets is an important principle in Islam and in other Abrahamic religions. In order to understand the information related to this issue, one must understand various concepts concerning prophethood. Among these are concepts such as nubuwwat (prophethood), revelation, nabi (prophet) and rasul (messenger prophet).

Prophethood

Ahzab 45-46

Nubuwwat is an Arabic term that means "to give news that is unknown." The use of nubuwwat to mean prophethood in Islamic culture has the following definition: "The assignment of a person chosen by Allah, the Creator of the universe, as an intermediary with humans for the purpose of informing them about religious and worldly issues and announcing the orders of Allah." Through revelations Allah has provided knowledge to the human being He chose to be messenger and has commanded them to inform mankind about all the issues that are necessary for humanity to know; among these are His own existence, His attributes, the creation of the universe with all the living and the nonliving creatures, its formation and the purpose of its creation, its system and its end, the afterlife, and the role, significance and duties of humanity among the other creatures, methods of knowledge, and the main rules that need to be obeyed in the world to ensure the happiness of individuals and societies.

As a consequence, the revelation is an essential element in the idea of nubuwwat, and nubuwwat represents the relationship and communication between Allah and His creatures. Well, then "What is the revelation?"

Revelation

a) The Definition of Revelation

The literal meaning of the word revelation is "to secretly inform, or a word that is secretly conveyed." As a term it means "an uncovering of information related to various issues via direct communication from Allah or through His messengers in the form of words or meanings." The prophet who receives the revelations knows absolutely that this information, which comes to him beyond his will, is conveyed to him by Allah. The prophet perceives, through these experiences, that the revelations are being imparted to him. However, physical and psychological changes happen to the prophets during the conveyance of the revelations. As a matter of fact, it is known that the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) sweated, even when the weather was cold, when he was receiving revelations, that the camel he was riding on took up a crouching position with the influence of the revelation and that sometimes the people around him heard sounds resembling that of bee buzzing. (Bukhari, "Bad'u'l-vahy", 1, "Fazailu'l-Quran", 2; Ahmad b. Hanbal, Musnad, I, 34, II, 176). Due to the miracles performed by the Prophet, the people around him knew that the information he was receiving were revelations. The revelation that constitutes the nubuwwat in the Quran is a divine address and inspiration, and was also revealed to such people as the mothers of Moses and Christ, who were not prophets, as well as to angels, to fire, to bees, the earth and the firmament. Moreover, the word revelation in the Quran sometimes refers to the feelings and thoughts imposed by Satan. However, this is only the literal meaning of the word revelation and has no relation to the revelations imparted to the prophets.

b) Types of Revelations

The revelations granted by Allah occurred in various forms:

Reliable Dreams. At the beginning, the revelation occurs in the exact same form that was experienced by Prophet Muhammad in his dreams. It is known that all the dreams of the Prophet during the beginning of the nubuwwat came to be, just like the dawn of the day. Other prophets also received such revelations.

Revelation via Angels. The revelation can be conveyed to the prophets by the Archangel Gabriel, who is assigned to carry information either in the form of his true image or in the form of a person, or without being visible. The revelations that were imparted to the Prophet by Gabriel took place in all three forms.

Revelation without an intermediary. Allah can reveal the desired information to the prophet by directly addressing him, or by creating information within the prophet's heart. Such revelations were imparted to Moses on Mount Horeb and to the Prophet Muhammad during the Mi'raj. All three revelation types are mentioned in the Quran.

c) The Possibility of Revelation

The revelation, which is in essence a spiritual experience, can occur with mental activity. In the Quran it is explained that not only are there visible entities, but there are also invisible entities and the possibility of revelation is expressed in the following way: "O! People. Know that you as ordinary people were not created in a way to see all the entities. Do not think that the beings only consist of the ones you see." The prophets are created with superior qualities and they can see and contact entities that are not seen by us. This is not impossible. The fact that the living entities are created with different capabilities verifies this statement of the Quran and the results of recent scientific developments that have identified the existence of invisible entities also confirm this truth.

Nabi-Rasul

The term Nabi means "heralder" or "the one heralded". Rasul on the other hand means "the messenger who conveys the news".  As a religious term, rasul is defined as the "person chosen among people and given a book by Allah through revelations in order to convey His orders."

According to the information in the Quran, Allah chose the nabis and rasuls. He did not grant books only to His rasuls but also to His nabis; Moses, Aaron and Ishmael were mentioned as rasul-nabi (Al-Hadid 57/25-26, Al-Ankabut 29/27, As-Saffat 7/114-117). In addition to this, there are also explanations within the Quran which might mean that there exists a separation between the terms rasul and nabi. The term rasul is defined as "a prophet sent with a new sharia," while the term nabi  is defined as the "prophet who announces the sharia brought by the previous prophet." Rasul is also used as a reference to an angel or the angels that act as intermediaries between Allah and His creation. However, the angels that take the souls of people are called rusul, and are described as winged messengers. These angels are referred to as rusul, while others, particularly Archangel Gabriel, are called rasul. (Al-An'am 7/37, Al-Fatir35/1, Al-Haqqa 69/40).