rasul (rasūl)

(Language: Arabic)

Short Description: Envoy, messenger

Long Description: In theology: divine messenger. It is in his function of rasūl that a prophet (nabī) promulgates a new sacred law; not every prophet is necessarily a rasūl, although he enjoys divine inspiration, but every rasūl is by implication a nabī.

Sources: Introduction to Sufi Doctrine (by Titus Burckhardt)