The Islamic Personality by Sheikh Taqīuddīn An-Nabahānī

‘Prophet’ (nabi) and ‘Messenger’ (rasul) are two contrastive terms but they share in the respect that a shari’a is revelaed to both of them. The difference between the Messenger and the prophet is that the former is inspired with a Sharī’ah which he is commanded to propagate, whereas the latter, i.e. the prophet is also inspired, but commanded to propagate the Sharī’ah of the messengers. In other words, the messenger is commanded to propagate the Sharī’ah himself, whilst the prophet propagates the Sharī’ah of the messengers.

Qadi al-Baydawi in commentary of the saying of Allah  ,

Says, ‘The messenger is sent by Allah  with a revived or new Sharī’ah which he calls people to, whereas the prophet is sent by Allah  to affirm the former Sharī’ah.’ Thus, Musa  was a prophet because he was inspired with a Sharī’ah and a messenger because this Sharī’ah was for his mission. On the other hand, although Aaron  was also a prophet because he was inspired with a Sharī’ah, he was not a messenger because the Sharī’ah, which was revealed to him was not for his mission, rather it was for the mission of Musa . By the same token, Muhammad  was a prophet and a messenger because he was inspired with a Sharī’ah, which was for his mission.

The message is the mediation between Allah  and the slaves in order to explain and clarify the method of satisfying the needs of this world and the hereafter. Wisdom necessitates the sending of messengers as they bring laws and benefits for people.

Thus, the sending of Messengers has actually occurred. Allah  appointed messengers from amongst mankind and sent them as bearers of glad tidings of paradise and reward to the people of belief and obedience. They were warners of the hell fire and punishment to people of disbelief and disobedience and they clarified the needs and requirements of this world and the hereafter for man. All because the mind is incapable of either deciding the good and bad or able to comprehend man himself and his affairs.

Allah  consolidates the prophets and messengers with miracles which oppose the norm. The miracle is a tool from Allah  that not only opposes the reality, but is rendered by the claimant of prophethood when he challenges the disbelivers who are incapable of achieving anything similar. If the messenger was not supported by a miracle it would not be necessary to accept his claim, since no distinction could be made between an impostor claiming prophethood and a genuine prophet. Hence, the miracle substantiates the prophet's truthfulness and convinces the people since an ordinary man can not achieve such a feat.

The first prophet was Adam  whilst the last prophet was Muhammad  . The prophethood of Adam  can be proven through three different sources: Firstly through the Quran. Allah  says,

The meaning of Ijtaba in this context means selecting him. The Quran also proves that Allah  both commanded and prohibited Adam certain things. Hence Allah  says,

This categorically proves that there was no other prophet during his time. Therefore, Adam  was a prophet by revelation and nothing else. A prophet who was inspired with a Sharī’ah, as every commandment [amr] or prohibition [nahi] is Sharī’ah. Thus since he received inspiration he is a prophet.

The Second source is the Sunnah. Tirmidhi reported from Abu Said al-Khudri  that the prophet  said,

Lastly, the consensus of the Sahaba  also proves that Adam  was a prophet.

As for the prophethood of Muhammad , as he also claimed prophethood and brought forth miracles, the prophethood is known by Mutawatir narrations, which substantiates it beyond any doubt. As for the miracle (i.e. the Qur’ān) it is the speech of Allah , which challenged and defied the eloquent and great speakers of Mecca. They were unable to oppose the shortest Sura of the Qur’ān, although they strived to do so. They then abandoned their styles of opposition from talk and rhetoric, even though they were the best and most revered linguists of their time, to force and the sword. Not even one of the disbelieving Kuffars ever related that someone was ever able to produce anything similar to the Qur’ān, despite the fact that they had the means to relate this information if required. All this categorically proves that the Qur’ān, i.e. the miracle given to Muhammad  is from Allah  and without any doubt verifies the true claim of the prophet .

The number of prophets and messengers are unknown because Allah  informs his messenger,

Although the number has been mentioned in some Ahadith, the Ahadith in question are of the Ahad category. Thus they do not have any value in ‘aqīdah (creed); i.e. they do not form part of the ‘aqīdah (creed). Assuming that the Ahad Hadith met all the pre-requisites of Usul-al-fiqh, it would only lead to conjecture, and conjecture can not be accepted as part of belief. Therefore the number is limited to the prophets and messengers mentioned in the Qur’ān because that is definite. Moreover, the number of prophets is neither mentioned in the Mutawatir Hadith. In respect to the prophets mentioned in the Qur’ān, Allah  says,

All the prophets and messengers were informers from Allah  because this is the meaning of prophethood and messengerhood. They are truthful, admonishers to creation lest the mission and message become futile and they are infallible from lying and error in their propagation, just as they are infallible from committing any sin. Further there is no definite [Qati] textual evidence in the Qur’ān or the Sunnah of the prophet  informing about the erring of the prophets after their Prophethood of Messengership. Whatever has been reported is either in the ahadith that are indefinite in their transmission [dhanni athuboot] or in the ayat that are indefinite in their evidence [dhanni ad-dalala] and the Indefinite [dhanni] cannot over ride the definite rational evidence on infallibility. As for what was revealed regarding Adam  in the Qur’ān about him eating from the tree which Allah  had prohibited him to eat from, this does not contradict the requirement of infallibility in the propogation of the message to the people on the earth because what happened from Adam  was in the Paradise, the wisdom of which is only known to Allah . Therefore this is separate matter (i.e Adam’s  eating of the fruit of the tree) because infallibility is related to the propogation of the message to the people on the earth.