Exploring the Concepts of Prophecy and Revelation through Qur'ānic Vocabulary

In Islam the belief in all the prophets, from Adam to Muḥammad, is a prominent article of faith. According to the Qur’ānic account, mankind started its existence as a united religious community (umma). However, when moral corruption took the place of the original state of virtue, it began to split up. Then God sent prophets with glad news and warnings, and the Book. Moses, for instance, was given the Book, so that he could carry God’s authoritative message. In particular, in line with the prophets who had preceded him and those who would follow him, he proclaimed the oneness of God (tawḥīd). Accordingly, the presence of divine envoys has always been conceived and perceived as a sign of blessing from God for all peoples. Besides, divine revelation became known to humankind through the channel of prophethood: revelation and prophecy, for this reason, are two intimately intertwined concepts. The specific term tanzīl, namely the act of ‘sending down’, is used only to refer to divine revelation and denotes an act of grace that is exclusively God’s own, even though humans or angels are allowed to function as a link between the divine and the human. In light of these premises, the article explores the concepts of prophecy and revelation through several keywords of the Qur’ānic text.