The Qur’anic Root R S L

From ordinary sending to divine messengership

One of the clearest witnesses to the basic meaning of rasūl occurs in Joseph’s story. The king orders Joseph to be brought to him, and the Qur’an says:

فَلَمَّا جَاءَهُ الرَّسُولُ قَالَ ارْجِعْ إِلَىٰ رَبِّكَ

Fa-lammā jāʾahu al-rasūlu qāla irjiʿ ilā rabbika.

“Then, when the messenger came to him, he said: Return to your master…”

Yūsuf 12:50

This rasūl is the king’s messenger. He is neither a Prophet, a bearer of a heavenly book, nor a bringer of law. The Qur’an itself uses rasūl for an ordinary human courier.

The account of the Queen of Sheba also states:

وَإِنِّي مُرْسِلَةٌ إِلَيْهِمْ بِهَدِيَّةٍ فَنَاظِرَةٌ بِمَ يَرْجِعُ الْمُرْسَلُونَ

Wa-innī mursilatun ilayhim bi-hadiyyatin fa-nāẓiratun bi-ma yarjiʿu al-mursalūna.

“I am sending them a gift, and will see what the envoys return with.”

Al-Naml 27:35

Here too, mursalūn are people dispatched by a human ruler on a mission.

Even angels are called rusul in the Qur’an:

جَاعِلِ الْمَلَائِكَةِ رُسُلًا أُولِي أَجْنِحَةٍ

Jāʿili al-malāʾikati rusulan ulī ajniḥatin.

“Making the angels messengers endowed with wings.”

Fāṭir 35:1

And in Al-Ḥajj 22:75:

اللَّهُ يَصْطَفِي مِنَ الْمَلَائِكَةِ رُسُلًا وَمِنَ النَّاسِ

Allāhu yaṣṭafī mina al-malāʾikati rusulan wa-mina al-nāsi.

“The God chooses messengers from the angels and also from humankind.”

These uses clarify the basic definition: rasūl designates someone sent; it does not inherently name a class of human beings who necessarily possess a book or a new law.

In divine messengership, this same role operates at another level. A person is sent by The God and entrusted with something to convey. The Qur’an shows this relationship very clearly in Al-Māʾidah 5:67:

يَا أَيُّهَا الرَّسُولُ بَلِّغْ مَا أُنْزِلَ إِلَيْكَ مِنْ رَبِّكَ وَإِنْ لَمْ تَفْعَلْ فَمَا بَلَّغْتَ رِسَالَتَهُ

Yā ayyuhā al-rasūlu balligh mā unzila ilayka min rabbika wa-in lam tafʿal fa-mā ballaghta risālatahu.

“O Messenger, convey what has been sent down to you from your Lord; if you do not, you have not conveyed His message.”

Within one sentence, the Messenger, the message, and conveying stand together.

The same relationship appears in:

أُبَلِّغُكُمْ رِسَالَاتِ رَبِّي

Uballighukum risālāti rabbī.

“I convey to you the messages of my Lord.”

Al-Aʿrāf 7:62 and 7:68

and:

مَا عَلَى الرَّسُولِ إِلَّا الْبَلَاغُ

Mā ʿalā al-rasūli illā al-balāghu.

“The Messenger is responsible only for conveying.”

Al-Māʾidah 5:99

These passages express the same connection.

Risālah should therefore not be equated with “book.” It is what the messenger is entrusted to convey. Its content may relate to a book, but risālah itself does not mean “an independent book.” Even a single Messenger can speak of risālāt, in the plural, without that plural meaning several independent books.

Messenger and Prophet: two titles from different semantic fields

The connection between the rasūl and conveying the risālah brings us to one of this family’s most important distinctions: rasūl and nabī are not the same word.

Rasūl belongs to R S L and the field of sending. Nabī does not belong to this family and is a separate linguistic designation.

The Qur’an itself places the two together. Of Moses it says:

وَكَانَ رَسُولًا نَبِيًّا

Wa-kāna rasūlan nabiyyan.

“And he was a Messenger, a Prophet.”

Maryam 19:51

Likewise of Ishmael:

وَكَانَ رَسُولًا نَبِيًّا

Wa-kāna rasūlan nabiyyan.

“And he was a Messenger, a Prophet.”

Maryam 19:54

And of Muhammad:

الَّذِينَ يَتَّبِعُونَ الرَّسُولَ النَّبِيَّ الْأُمِّيَّ

Alladhīna yattabiʿūna al-rasūla al-nabiyya al-ummiyya.

“Those who follow the Messenger, the ummī Prophet.”

Al-Aʿrāf 7:157

One person can be both Messenger and Prophet. This construction shows that the two titles can coexist in one individual, each expressing a different aspect of that person.

Another verse even rules out the simple definition that “a Messenger is someone sent, whereas a Prophet merely gives news and is not sent”:

وَمَا أَرْسَلْنَا مِنْ قَبْلِكَ مِنْ رَسُولٍ وَلَا نَبِيٍّ

Wa-mā arsalnā min qablika min rasūlin wa-lā nabiyyin.

“And before you We sent no Messenger and no Prophet…”

Al-Ḥajj 22:52

The verb أرسلنا (arsalnā) applies to both rasūl and nabī. A Prophet can therefore also be sent. “Sending” is an action, while rasūl is a title identifying a person in terms of their message-bearing mission.

Nabī in the Semitic languages

The nabī family also considerably predates later theological terminology. Hebrew uses a cognate form for a prophet, and the associated verb means prophesying and speaking in the capacity of a prophet. The same family is recorded for “prophet” in Aramaic, and a closely related form also exists in Syriac.

These findings show that nabī is an old, independent Semitic family associated with prophecy and prophetic speech, rather than R S L’s field of sending.

In Arabic too, the association of nabī with ن ب أ (N B ʾ) and news has long been proposed. Comparative evidence alone, however, does not settle the historical direction of derivation. Arabic sources also preserve another analysis connecting nabī with elevation. This issue requires resolution in an independent study of nabī.

What is clear for R S L is that nabī and rasūl share neither a root nor a single linguistic image. A translation that reduces them to one word without explanation therefore removes part of the Qur’an’s construction.

Book, prophethood, and messengership: what do the verses actually say?

One common definition treats a rasūl as a Prophet who brings a new book or law, and a nabī as someone without a new book. This boundary, however, does not come from R S L itself, nor does the Qur’an’s body of verses support it.

Al-Baqarah 2:213 is a principal verse in this discussion:

كَانَ النَّاسُ أُمَّةً وَاحِدَةً فَبَعَثَ اللَّهُ النَّبِيِّينَ مُبَشِّرِينَ وَمُنْذِرِينَ وَأَنْزَلَ مَعَهُمُ الْكِتَابَ بِالْحَقِّ لِيَحْكُمَ بَيْنَ النَّاسِ فِيمَا اخْتَلَفُوا فِيهِ

Kāna al-nāsu ummatan wāḥidatan fa-baʿatha Allāhu al-nabiyyīna mubashshirīna wa-mundhirīna wa-anzala maʿahumu al-kitāba bi-l-ḥaqqi li-yaḥkuma bayna al-nāsi fīmā ikhtalafū fīhi.

“Humankind was one community. Then The God raised up the Prophets as bearers of good news and warners, and sent down with them the Book in truth, to judge between people concerning their disagreements.”

The verse establishes a real connection between the Prophets and the Book. Denying that connection would be wrong.

Yet neither can one conclude from it:

Every Prophet received a new, independent book.

النبيين (al-nabiyyīn) is plural, while الكتاب (al-kitāb) is singular. The singular alone does not prove that only one historical book is intended; it can denote the category of scripture and written revelation. But the verse’s construction does not express a one-to-one relationship of “each Prophet = one independent book,” either.

Nor is such a definition the sentence’s explicit purpose:

لِيَحْكُمَ بَيْنَ النَّاسِ فِيمَا اخْتَلَفُوا فِيهِ

Li-yaḥkuma bayna al-nāsi fīmā ikhtalafū fīhi.

“To judge between people concerning that over which they differed.”

The Book is presented as a means of judging between people in their disagreements. The verse continues by discussing disagreement among those given the Book. Its focus is revelation, disagreement, and judgment, not a technical definition of Prophet or a count of prophetic books.

Al-Māʾidah 5:44 clarifies the matter further:

إِنَّا أَنْزَلْنَا التَّوْرَاةَ فِيهَا هُدًى وَنُورٌ يَحْكُمُ بِهَا النَّبِيُّونَ الَّذِينَ أَسْلَمُوا لِلَّذِينَ هَادُوا

Innā anzalnā al-tawrāta fīhā hudan wa-nūrun yaḥkumu bihā al-nabiyyūna alladhīna aslamū li-lladhīna hādū.

“We sent down the Torah, containing guidance and light. The Prophets who submitted judged by it for those who were Jews.”

Here a particular book, the Torah, is not placed at the disposal of just one Prophet. The Qur’an speaks of النبيون (al-nabiyyūn) in the plural, judging by that same Torah.

At least some Prophets can therefore work with a book revealed before them. This verse is incompatible with the definition that “every Prophet possesses an independent book.”

Al-Baqarah 2:87 tests the same boundary from another direction:

وَلَقَدْ آتَيْنَا مُوسَى الْكِتَابَ وَقَفَّيْنَا مِنْ بَعْدِهِ بِالرُّسُلِ

Wa-laqad ātaynā Mūsā al-kitāba wa-qaffaynā min baʿdihi bi-l-rusuli.

“And We gave Moses the Book, and after him brought Messengers in succession.”

The Qur’an first attributes the Book to Moses, then speaks of multiple rusul coming after him. The verse does not say that each of these Messengers brought a new book.

Being a rasūl, therefore, does not in itself equal bringing a new book.

Āl ʿImrān 3:81 presents another important construction:

وَإِذْ أَخَذَ اللَّهُ مِيثَاقَ النَّبِيِّينَ لَمَا آتَيْتُكُمْ مِنْ كِتَابٍ وَحِكْمَةٍ ثُمَّ جَاءَكُمْ رَسُولٌ مُصَدِّقٌ لِمَا مَعَكُمْ

Wa-idh akhadha Allāhu mīthāqa al-nabiyyīna la-mā ātaytukum min kitābin wa-ḥikmatin thumma jāʾakum rasūlun muṣaddiqun li-mā maʿakum.

“And when The God took the covenant of the Prophets: Of what I have given you of book and wisdom, then a Messenger comes to you confirming what is with you…”

Here النبيين (al-nabiyyīn) are associated with book and wisdom, and then a rasūl is introduced with the description:

مُصَدِّقٌ لِمَا مَعَكُمْ

Muṣaddiqun li-mā maʿakum.

“Confirming what is with you.”

This is how the Messenger is described.

A Messenger can thus confirm what is already with the Prophets. This verse does not prove that a Messenger brings nothing new; equally, however, it does not permit inserting “bringing a new book or law” into the definition of rasūl.

Al-Anʿām 6:89, after naming a group of guided figures, also says:

أُولَٰئِكَ الَّذِينَ آتَيْنَاهُمُ الْكِتَابَ وَالْحُكْمَ وَالنُّبُوَّةَ

Ulāʾika alladhīna ātaynāhumu al-kitāba wa-l-ḥukma wa-l-nubuwwata.

“Those are the ones to whom We gave the Book, judgment, and prophethood.”

Again, the connection between prophethood and the Book is real. The sentence, however, speaks collectively about a group; it does not say that each person possessed a new, independent book.

Even of John, it is said:

يَا يَحْيَىٰ خُذِ الْكِتَابَ بِقُوَّةٍ

Yā Yaḥyā khudhi al-kitāba bi-quwwatin.

“O John, take hold of the Book with strength.”

Maryam 19:12

The Qur’an identifies no independent book for John. A relationship with al-kitāb is not the same as being the bearer of a new book.

These passages support a more precise conclusion:

The Prophet stands within the network of revelation, scripture, and judgment, but possessing an independent book does not define a Prophet. A Messenger can also relate to a book, but bringing a new book or law does not define a Messenger.

The distinction between the titles must be sought in the words themselves, rather than in dividing books between them.

Mary and the boundaries the text leaves open

Mary illustrates why predetermined classifications should not govern our reading of the Qur’an.

In Surah Maryam, after the account of Zechariah and John, Mary and Jesus, Abraham, Moses, Aaron, Ishmael, and Idrīs are mentioned. For several of them, the similar construction:

وَاذْكُرْ فِي الْكِتَابِ...

Wa-dhkur fī al-kitābi…

“And mention in the Book…”

recurs.

Of Mary:

وَاذْكُرْ فِي الْكِتَابِ مَرْيَمَ

Wa-dhkur fī al-kitābi Maryama.

“And mention in the Book Mary.”

The same construction then appears for Abraham, Moses, Ishmael, and Idrīs.

After this sequence, verse 58 says:

أُولَٰئِكَ الَّذِينَ أَنْعَمَ اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِمْ مِنَ النَّبِيِّينَ ... وَمِمَّنْ هَدَيْنَا وَاجْتَبَيْنَا

Ulāʾika alladhīna anʿama Allāhu ʿalayhim mina al-nabiyyīna … wa-mimman hadaynā wa-jtabaynā.

“Those are the ones upon whom The God bestowed favor, from among the Prophets … and from those We guided and chose.”

أولئك (ulāʾika) points to the preceding group, and the masculine plural in Arabic does not in itself exclude a woman from a mixed group. Including Mary among those indicated by the verse is therefore a serious and defensible reading of the surah’s structure.

The degree of explicitness must nevertheless be preserved. The Qur’an does not directly use the expression:

مريم نبية (Maryamu nabiyyatun) — “Mary is a Prophet”

Mary’s prophethood is therefore argued from the contextual connection within this group, not from an explicit nominal sentence.

Al-Māʾidah calls Mary:

صِدِّيقَةٌ

Ṣiddīqatun.

“A woman of truthfulness.”

This title does not negate prophethood. The Qur’an says of Abraham:

صِدِّيقًا نَبِيًّا

Ṣiddīqan nabiyyan.

“A man of truthfulness, a Prophet.”

It also places the same two descriptions together for Idrīs. Ṣiddīq and nabī are therefore not contradictory titles.

Greater caution is required concerning Mary’s messengership. In Al-Muʾminūn, after mentioning Jesus and his mother:

وَجَعَلْنَا ابْنَ مَرْيَمَ وَأُمَّهُ آيَةً

Wa-jaʿalnā ibna Maryama wa-ummahu āyatan.

“And We made the son of Mary and his mother a sign.”

the next verse says:

يَا أَيُّهَا الرُّسُلُ...

Yā ayyuhā al-rusulu…

“O Messengers…”

This proximity is noteworthy, but الرسل (al-rusul) is a general plural, and the surah has already discussed several Messengers. This construction alone is therefore insufficient to establish that Mary is explicitly called a rasūl.

Nor is settling this question necessary to show the inadequacy of the boundary “Messenger with a book / Prophet without a book.” Other direct Qur’anic evidence is sufficient for that purpose.

Translation and preserving the distinction between the titles

A principal translation problem arises when rasūl and nabī are both rendered by the same term, erasing the Qur’an’s linguistic distinction. English should keep Messenger and Prophet distinguishable.

“Messenger” describes someone who carries a message and is therefore suited to the field of rasūl. “Envoy,” “sent one,” or “message-bearer” may also convey this role according to context.

If rasūl and nabī are translated by the same English word, however, verses such as:

وَكَانَ رَسُولًا نَبِيًّا

Wa-kāna rasūlan nabiyyan.

“And he was a Messenger, a Prophet.”

lose their meaning.

The two titles must remain recognizable in translation.

Pending a full independent study of nabī, retaining the distinct designation Prophet (nabī), especially alongside Messenger, is more precise than a rendering that removes the distinction.

Nor should risālah automatically be translated as “book.” It is the message or mission that must be conveyed; context specifies the kind of content involved.

مرسل (mursal) is someone who has been sent, and أرسل (arsala) expresses sending and dispatching. The different patterns of rasūl and mursal should not be used to invent a new hierarchy of religious ranks.

Conclusion

The root ر س ل (R S L) centers on sending and dispatching. A rasūl is someone sent by a sender toward a destination and for a mission; the risālah is what that person must convey to its destination.

This linguistic definition accords with Qur’anic usage. The Egyptian king’s courier is a rasūl; the Queen of Sheba’s envoys are mursalūn; and angels are also called rusul. Possessing a book, being human, or bringing a new law therefore does not belong to the lexical meaning of rasūl.

In divine messengership, this role stands in relation to The God. The Messenger is sent by Him, and the Qur’an connects his responsibility with balāgh, conveying, and risālāt, messages. The word therefore centers on being sent and conveying the entrusted mission.

Rasūl and nabī are independent titles. One person can be both, and the Qur’an describes Moses, Ishmael, and Muhammad with both designations. Al-Ḥajj 22:52 also shows that the verb “send” applies to both Messenger and Prophet; their distinction cannot therefore be reduced to one being sent and the other not being sent.

The other definition, which makes a new book or law the boundary between the titles, likewise fails to accord with the range of Qur’anic uses. Al-Baqarah 2:213 connects Prophets with the Book without expressing a one-to-one relationship between a Prophet and an independent book. Al-Māʾidah 5:44 shows multiple Prophets judging by one Torah. Al-Baqarah 2:87, after giving Moses the Book, speaks of Messengers coming after him without identifying a new book for each. Āl ʿImrān 3:81 also presents a Messenger confirming what is with the Prophets.

The relationship between prophethood and the Book is real, but it does not yield the rule “every Prophet has an independent book.” Likewise, the real relationship between messengership and revelation does not establish that “every Messenger brings a new law.”

The nabī family also has an old, independent history in Hebrew and Aramaic, associated with prophecy and prophetic speech. This accords with its independence from R S L, although the precise historical relationship of Arabic nabī to nabaʾ must be settled in an independent study of that word.

A cautious account of this root is:

R S L: a family centered on sending and dispatching. A rasūl is someone sent, entrusted with a risālah to convey to its destination. In the Qur’an, a rasūl can be a human courier, an angel, or a Messenger of The God. Possessing an independent book or bringing a new law does not belong to this title’s meaning. Messenger and Prophet are independent descriptions that can coexist in one person; their difference must be understood through their linguistic fields and the Qur’an’s own usage.