The Prophet in Islam
In Islam, prophecy is language: prophecy and prophecy is the height, or the elevated place from the ground. And the Prophet: Knowledge is one of the signs of the earth that guides it, and from it is the derivation of the “Prophet” because he is the most sublime of God’s creation, and that is because he is guided by him. An-Naba’: The news, it is said: news, and news and news: tell, and from it: the prophet, because he foretold from God.
And when the Noble Qur’an was revealed to the Messenger of God, Muhammad, he specified the meaning of the word “prophecy.” It clarified that the prophet was the one who sent down God’s revelation and commanded to convey it to people. He is not a magician, because the farmer is not his ally. God Almighty says in the Qur’an: {And the magician will not succeed wherever he comes} Taha: 69, just as what he conveys from his Lord is not poetry.
God Almighty says in the Qur’an: {And it is not the saying of a poet. Little do you believe} Al-Haqqah: 41, so the Prophet should not be associated with a poet, or with someone who delivers the speech in a loud voice, as that was known to the Prophet. Greece, just as he is not a priest as it was known to the ancient Egyptians, as the Holy Qur’an stipulates this description about him, so the Qur’an mentioned: {And there is no priest’s saying.
So if the Holy Qur’an makes it clear that the Prophet is neither a poet nor a soothsayer, then it is more appropriate to deny him a description that some people used to give to charlatans in the name of religion, which is sacred madness, so the Qur’an mentioned: {You are not, by the grace of your Lord, insane} Al-Qalam: 2, that is, you are not with this that was revealed to you by God is one of those who were known among the people as "magazib", or have "holy madness". Finally, I am not one of those who take divination and predicting the unseen as a craft for them, so what you communicate about God is not confused with the words of those who claim that they know the unseen.
God says: {Then say that the unseen is only for God, so wait. Al-Anam: 59, and he says: {Say: I do not say to you that I have the treasuries of God, and I do not know the unseen, nor do I tell you that I am an angel. I only follow what is revealed to me. Say, Are the blind and the sighted equal? With this, Islam differentiated between divine prophecy, and its implications such as fortune-telling, divination, cavalry, and physiognomy. It also specified the uses of the word, so that it is not used except for those upon whom revelation came from God, so it is no longer acceptable in reason, nor is it permissible in law to refer to priests.
Or to those who study Sharia and teach it to people, and therefore it is not applied to witches and astrologers, and to the highest insane and sorcerers in the path of religion, so there is nothing left of the old uses of the word “prophecy” except that it is applied to those with good visions, which is a prelude and a precursor to the descent of revelation to whom God singled out for this vision. As it happened to Joseph, God says: {When Joseph said to his father, “O my father, I saw eleven stars and the sun and the moon. I saw them prostrating themselves to me.” Yusuf: 4.
The Prophet in Judaism
The word prophecy among the Children of Israel indicated the meaning of telling about God, and therefore it was applied to those who graduated from religious schools, where they were taught the interpretation of their law, and they were also studying music and poetry, so among them were poets, singers, and musicians, and they were skilled in everything that affects In the soul, stirs feeling and conscience, and stirs stagnant imagination.
It is recognized that the graduates of these schools were not at the same degree of mental clarity and mental perception, just as they were not all at the same degree of piety and righteousness. Therefore, the holy books before Islam did not differentiate in their talk about the prophets between those who receive revelation from God, and those who They study God’s law and explain it to people, so its talk came - sometimes - about false prophets, as we find in the book of Isaiah a talk about the false prophet, where he says: “The respected old man is the head, and the prophet who teaches lies is the sinner (9-15), and Matthew says: «And he rises False prophets are many, and they deceive many” (24-11), and Luke says: “For this is how their fathers used to do the false prophets” (6-26), and John describes in his vision the exit of unclean spirits from the mouth of the false prophet.