Meanings of Prophet

Prophet:

A prophet is an individual who is claimed to have been contacted by the Devine or Supernatural (God, Allah), and to speak for Him, serving as a messenger to humanity, delivering the commandments, knowledge from the supernatural entity (God, Allah) to people. The message that the prophet conveys is called a Prophecy.

Prophets promotes change due to their messages and actions in society that.

The Meanings of Prophet:

1.         An authoritative person who divines the future

2.         Someone who speaks by divine inspiration,

3.         Someone who is an interpreter of the will of God (Allah)

4.         Someone who claims to discover hidden knowledge with the aid of supernatural powers

5.         One inspired or instructed by God (Allah) to speak in his name, or announce future
            events, Guidelines to spend life in a good way, Guidance in all the ups and downs of life.
            Clarify / testify the existence of one true God (Allah).

6.         An interpreter; a spokesman of God (Allah).

7.         One who prophesies, or foretells events; a predictor; a foreteller.

8.         Prophet signifies those to whom revelation is made, also abstractedly, revelation itself; but
            in the internal sense a Prophet signifies one who teaches. He is called a Prophet

The Quraan identifies a number of men as Prophets of Islam, Arabic word: Nabi or Nabiy and Aambiyaa. Muslims believe such individuals were assigned a special task / mission by one true God (Allah) to guide mankind / humanity. Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) is one of them.

There are only twenty five (25) prophets are mentioned by name in the Quraan. But as per a Hadith (Saying of prophet no 21257 in the Book of Hadith “Musnad Idn-Hambal”) mentions that there were 124,000 of them (Prophets) in total throughout the history, there is a greater number of prophets in the history of mankind, and God (Allah) alone knows.

Quraan says that God (Allah) has sent a prophet to every group of people throughout the time, and that Muhammad is the last of the prophets, sent for the whole of humankind.

The message of all the prophets is to believe in one true God (Allah) is the same. In Islam, all Prophetic Messengers are Prophets (such as Adam (AADAM), Noah (Nooh), Abraham (Ibrahim), Moses (Mussa), Jesus (issah), and Muhammad (PBUH).

Difference between Prophet and Prophetic Messenger:

Not all Prophets are Prophetic Messengers.

Prophet (Arabic work “Nabi”):

The primary distinction being that a Prophet is required to demonstrate God's law (Allah) through his actions character (which is called Sunnah in Arabic) and behavior without necessarily calling people to follow him.

Prophetic Messenger (Arabic work “Paighamber”):

A Prophetic Messenger is required to pronounce God's law (Allah) (Revelation) and call his people to submit and follow him. The Prophet Muhammad is distinguished from the rest of the Prophetic Messengers and Prophets in that he was deputed / commissioned by God (Allah) to be the Prophetic Messenger to all of mankind. 

In Islamic tradition the first prophet is Adem (Aadam) and the last prophet is Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), who in Islam is called Seal of the Prophets (Arabic word Khatim an Nabuwah)

Meanings of Seal of the Prophets / Khatim an Nabuwah

That No Prophet or Prophetic Messenger will be sent by God (Allah) for further guidance to Humankind, because through Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) all the guidance is sent / delivered which is required / sufficient for whole humanity.

Seal of the Prophets / Khatam al-Nabiyyeen (sometimes as Khatam an-Nabuwah) is a title used by the Quraan to designate the Islamic prophet Muhammad (PBUH). Prophet Muhammad is the last in the line of prophets which were chosen by God (Allah) to deliver the divine message of Islam to whole humanity. Interpretations / Meanings of the Arabic word “Khatam” are a seal of approval, authentication, superiority. Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) received the final revelation from God (Allah), in the form of the Quraan, and that it was intended for all mankind, for all time.

The term Khatam an-Nabuwah is derived from the Quranic phrase Khatam un Nabiyyeen “seal of the prophets”. 

Quraanic Verse:

“Muhammad is not the father of any of your men, but he is the Messenger of Allah, and the seal of the Prophets and God (Allah) has full knowledge of all things”.

Holy Books given to Prophets:

Four prophets are believed to have been sent Holy Books.

The Tawrat (Torah) to Moses (Mussa)

The Zabur (Psalms) to David (Dawood

The Injil (Gospel) to Jesus (Issa)

The Quraan to Muhammad (PBUH)

Prophets who were sent books, those prophets are considered "messengers" or “Rasul”. And the other prophets are considered messengers or “Nabi”, even if they didn't receive a Book from God (Allah). Examples include the messenger prophet Aaron (Haroon), Ishmael (Ismaeel) and Yusuf  (Joseph).

Prophecy:

A process in which, one or more messages have been communicated to a prophet for further deliverance to others. Such messages involve divine inspiration, interpretation, or revelation knowledge of events to come as well as testimonies regarding one true God (Allah) or repeated revelations that the world is divine. The process of prophecy especially involves received / delivered communication trough some spiritual source to the prophet with the divine source of the messages.