• Contact us
• Search the website

Words nabi and rasul used metaphorically as meaning ‘saint’

According to Islamic authorities, the words nabi (‘prophet’) and rasul (‘messenger’) are not only used for actual prophets, as defined in Islamic terminology, but can also be applied in a metaphorical sense, or in the sense of their linguistic meaning, to someone who is not a prophet.

These words can be, and have been, applied to some of the great saints of Islam, who were certainly not prophets, because they possessed some qualities of prophets such as communication from Allah (in the limited form in which it is promised to true believers by the Holy Quran and Hadith).

A Muslim who is spoken to by God is known as a muhaddas . This is the term used by the Holy Prophet Muhammad himself, as given in Bukhari.

Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad used these words nabi and rasul about himself in the way that they are used for Muslim saints, for someone who is a muhaddas, and he made it perfectly clear that he was not claiming to be a prophet.

Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad’s detailed explanations of his use of these terms

• Hazrat Mirza announces: “Delete the word Prophet from my writings and replace it with Saint”.
• Words Nabi, Rasul about me are only metaphorical. Beware, don’t use them commonly in everyday talk!
• Statement from book Siraj Munir on metaphorical use of words nabi and rasul.
• Statement from book Anjam Atham on metaphorical use of words nabi and rasul.

Other statements by Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad:

“These words (rasul, nabi) are used by way of metaphor, just as in Hadith also the word nabi has been used for the Promised Messiah. It is obvious that he who is sent by God is His envoy, and an envoy is called rasul in Arabic. And he who discloses news of the unseen, having received it from God, is known as nabi in Arabic. The meanings in Islamic terminology are different. Here only the linguistic meaning is intended.”

(Arba‘in, published December 1900, No. 2, p. 18, footnote. Ruhani Khaza’in, vol. 17, p. 366)

---

“Here the words rasul and nabi which have been used about me in the revelation from God, that he is the messenger and prophet of God, are meant in a metaphorical and figurative sense.”

(Arba‘in, No. 3, p. 25, footnote. Ruhani Khaza’in, vol. 17, p. 413)

---

“God speaks to, and communicates with, His saints (auliya) in this Ummah, and they are given the colour of prophets. However, they are not prophets in reality (haqiqat).”

(Mawahib ar-Rahman, published January 1903, pp. 66–67. Ruhani Khaza’in, vol. 19, p. 285)

---

“And I have been called nabi (prophet) by Allah by way of metaphor, not by way of reality (haqiqat).”

(Haqiqat al-Wahy, Supplement, p. 64. Ruhani Khaza’in, vol. 22, p. 689)