Prophethood
Revelation, Intellect, and Authority
This book is an interdisciplinary volume that examines the question
of prophethood through different scholarly traditions and modes of
thought. The book treats prophethood not merely as a narrow theological
institution, but as a multilayered issue closely connected with revelation,
reason, knowledge, religious authority, law, and social order.
The first chapter investigates the concept of prophethood in the Qur’an
from a philological and semantic perspective. It analyzes the semantic
relations between such key terms as nabī, rasūl, revelation, scripture,
wisdom, guidance, proclamation, and mercy, thereby clarifying the
Qur’anic conceptual framework of prophethood. The second chapter
focuses on the necessity of prophethood in the kalām tradition and on
the proofs offered for the prophethood of Muhammad. In this context,
it discusses the approaches of major theological schools such as the
Muʿtazila, Māturīdism, and Ashʿarism, together with arguments based
on the inimitability of the Qur’an, the Prophet’s moral character, and
earlier scriptural annunciations. The third chapter examines the theory
of prophethood in al-Fārābī and Avicenna through its metaphysical,
epistemological, linguistic, and socio-political dimensions. It explores
the relation of revelation to the Active Intellect, the perfection of the
human intellect, the imaginative faculty, symbolic representation, religious
language, and the virtuous social order. The final chapter extends
the discussion to Jewish thought through Maimonides and investigates
the relationship between prophetic authority and rabbinic authority. In
this respect, the volume offers a broad intellectual-historical perspective
on prophethood as a problem situated at the intersection of revelation,
reason, and authority.
Keywords: Prophethood; Revelation; Intellect; Kalām; Active Intellect;
Imaginative Faculty; Rabbi; Nabī; Rasūl; Guidance.