The three degrees of Revelation
Contents
Modalities of spiritual transmission, after the words of Amadou Hampâté Bâ.
Approaching the notion of ‘prophecy’ nowadays is not straightforward. The very definition of the word ‘prophet’ deserves to be dwelt upon, so as to perceive its deep meaning as understood in the three so-called monotheistic religions issued from Abraham (Judaism, Christianity, Islam). According to the Islamic tradition, which results from the Qur’an and the words of the Prophet Muhammad, three categories of men are distinguished who set themselves apart from other men by a remarkable degree of spiritual elevation and by a very specific function.
The Messengers
At the summit of the hierarchy of Revelation stand the rasul, literally the ‘Messengers’ of God, or the Great Envoys. Every rasul is chosen by God, by an act of His grace, to be the instrument of a major Revelation from God. This Revelation is generally destined either for a very numerous people, or for the whole of humanity. God reveals to His Envoy His Word, which becomes a sacred Book for men, containing the commandments of God, a holy Law relating to each one’s outward and inward conduct, together with the means for every man and every woman to begin the return towards his Lord.
These Great Envoys are very rare and exercise their mission at a particular moment of humanity’s cycle. Their appearance marks a new stage of the Revelation and, consequently, of human evolution. Each new ‘descent’ of the divine Revelation through them comes at once to confirm the previous revelations and to complete them, to perfect them on certain points, and to adapt them to the new conditions of the time. The Islamic tradition counts six Great Envoys: Adam, who descended to earth ‘with the Words of His Lord’, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus and Muhammad. They are sometimes called ‘legislating Envoys’, because each of them received a new Law, adapted to the necessities of the time. Muhammad is the last Messenger for our cycle: it is in this that Islam is the spiritual tradition representing the synthesis of the previous ones.
The case of Jesus is rather particular: if he came to bring some easing of the original Judaic Law, it was not his function to abrogate the prescriptions revealed to Moses: ‘Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law (brought by Moses): I have not come to abolish it, but to fulfil it’ (Matthew V, 17). Among the Great Envoys, Jesus is the one who is to return to earth to close the cycle of present humanity.
Providence willed that the six rasul, or Great Envoys of God, belong to a specific branch of humanity: the Semitic branch. One could almost say, indeed, that they are ‘issued one from another’. The Revelation thus had its cradle in the Middle East, in Palestine and in the Arabian peninsula. With each of these Great Envoys, a community was constituted and a new religion appeared, although in reality these Envoys always preached a single and eternal religion: that of the One and Eternal God.
The Prophets
The second type of Envoys is given by the Arabic term nabi, which is literally translated as ‘prophet’. These are holy men who have likewise received a divine revelation, of which they make themselves the humble servants. Unlike the rasul, their message is in general destined only for a small group of men, and sometimes they must even keep it almost secret. They may be nabi outwardly manifested or not manifested, unlike the rasul, who is always manifested.
The nabi, whatever the revelation he is charged with transmitting, remains placed under the legislation brought by the rasul who preceded him. For he never brings a new ‘Law’ for humanity. Such is, for example, the case of the prophets of the Bible, who exhorted the Jewish people to return to the pure Law of Moses.
The Islamic tradition reports that there were 124,000 nabi, among whom some are cited in the Qur’an. Many of them came from the Middle East. Only four came from Arabia. It cannot be said where and when the others appeared.
The saints
In order to keep the Tradition permanently alive, God sends to men the wali, commonly called the ‘saints of God’. In reality, the word wali means ‘the one who is near’ to God, in union with Him and living in His Love. The number of wali who have dwelt on earth is not known, but their presence among men is necessary at all times and within all communities. The degradation of humanity’s spiritual dispositions over the last centuries is linked to the considerable reduction in the number of wali among men.
A nabi, that is, a prophet, is always a wali, receiving in addition a particular mission. Likewise, the rasul (Great Envoy) is always also a wali invested with the quality of nabi, that is, with the prophetic dignity, while also receiving the glorious mission of revealing the Word of God to men. It must therefore be stressed that the quality of prophet or of Great Envoy appears at the very heart of the quality of wali: the Saint and Sage of God living by and for the Love of God, in the mysterious circle of ‘divine proximity’. Within Sufism, one thus distinguishes for the wali typologies of spiritual realisation that refer to a colouring proper to this or that Great Envoy: one speaks of an Abrahamic, Mosaic, Christic or Muhammadan realisation.
Among the wali are the authentic spiritual guides, called shaykh or pir in the Sufi tradition, who hold a divine authorisation to transmit a teaching within a particular tradition. These saints of God are the actualisation of the prophetic presence in a given period. In the present conditions of humanity, it is towards the shuyukh that aspirants to divine proximity must turn their gaze, for it is they who are the depositaries of the spirit and the initial breath present in the Revelation. Through them the encounter between human nature and divine mercy is established.
The Qur’anic Revelation
The Messenger received the fragments of the Qur’an in altered states that overwhelmed his individuality. The phenomena that accompanied the Revelations were impressive. When Muhammad felt them coming, he would shiver and tremble, and would generally have himself covered with a veil or a cloak (Qur’an LXXIII and LXXIV), beneath which he could be heard breathing, moaning, uttering hoarse cries under the effect of an intense muscular tension. He would emerge from it in a sweat, with a heaviness of the head that he treated with poultices. After the solemn sermon of the Farewell Pilgrimage, the last revealed verse descended and made the knees of the she-camel on which the Prophet was mounted buckle. The Revelations were sometimes interrupted; the Prophet awaited them in order to answer questions or to give indications to his community. He made a clear distinction between the Revelations that came from the Beyond and what came from his own conscious intelligence, even when inspired. Many hadiths have been preserved in which the Prophet acts and speaks, and some even in which God speaks in the first person. These hadiths, which constitute the sunna, nevertheless do not form part of the Qur’anic Revelation.
There were several modes of reception of the verses. Sometimes the Prophet heard rustlings, tinklings and a discourse whose meaning he fully grasped when the sounds ceased. Sometimes the angel Gabriel appeared in human form, spoke distinctly and made himself understood as the words proceeded. Sometimes the Prophet had a more direct perception. The Qur’an recommended to the Prophet: ‘Do not stir your tongue in reading the Qur’an as though you wished to hasten the Revelation’ (LXXV, 16). The fragments received were retained by the Prophet and the Companions, some of whom knew as much of them as possible by heart. They were written on skins, palm-leaves, pottery and sheep’s shoulder-blades. At Medina, Muhammad had secretaries who transcribed them at once. These fragments were grouped into chapters or surahs, which were classified roughly in order of length: the shortest, and at the same time often the oldest, at the end. The first caliph, Abu Bakr, had the whole transcribed. ’Uthman, the third caliph, fixed a definitive reference version, based on the copies entrusted to Hafsa, Muhammad’s widow and ’Umar’s daughter.
O Allah! Pray upon our lord Muhammad, upon Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses and Jesus, and upon all the other prophets and messengers. May the prayers of Allah and His salutation be upon them all.
