Some have thought that the word ‘Prophet’ includes the...

Some have thought that the word ‘Prophet’ includes the meaning of the word ‘Messenger’; therefore, they claim that a Prophet is a person who receives revelation from Almighty God, whether or not he has the responsibility of advertising it to other people, whereas a ‘Messenger’ is a person who holds the responsibility of advertising God’s message to the public.

However, it is not right, because in some verses of the Holy Qur’an, the word ‘Prophet’ is used after the word ‘Messenger’ (refer to Maryam:51,54). Whereas, according to the above interpretations, the more general word ‘Messenger’ should have preceded the specific one ‘Prophet’. Furthermore, there is no reason for allocating the responsibility of advertising revelation to messengers.

In some traditions, it has been stated that the requisite for the position of Prophet, is that the person should visit the Angel of revelation only in his dreams and when he is awake he would just hear the Angel’s voice; while, the Messenger visits the Angel in his wakefulness (refer to Usūl al-Kāfi, vol 1, p.176). However, this can not be due to the interpretation of the…