Prophethood to the People of Shariah, Tariqah and Haqiqah

Prophethood is a term used to express the act of receiving the realities of gnosis and intellectual knowledge from Allah on the part of the Purified Soul by means of the essence of the First Intellect, known sometimes as Gabriel and sometimes as the Holy Spirit. It is also used to express the transmission of this gnosis and intellectual knowledge to those who listen and benefit thereby and to the followers of the prophets and messengers.

i) According to the people of shari`ah
The prophet is the man sent from Allah to His slaves: he is sent in order to perfect them by making them aware of the manner in which they need to worship Him and by teaching them about that which will safeguard them from any acts of disobedience. His prophethood is recognized by three things. The first is that he does not establish anything which is contrary to the rational workings of the intellect (like his saying, for example, that the Creator is more than one in number). The second is that he calls creation to obedience of Allah and to an abstention from acts of disobedience. The third is that, as a result of the call of the prophet, there appears a mujizah (miracle) and a corresponding challenge to his call. A mujizah is any action which breaks normal patterns and which ordinary human beings are incapable of performing and a challenge is that a prophet says to his people: `If you do not accept my message, then such and such will happen to you;' his people then say exactly the same thing to him in disbelief of his message and they exhort him to do something that they may believe in his prophecy ‑ like their calling on him to split the moon or make the stones speak. An (extraordiآ­nary) action which does not occur specifically in response to a challenge or a denial of a message (on the part of a prophet) is called a karamah ‑ an act of wondrous proportions ‑ and it belongs to the saints rather than the prophets.
The reason for sending a prophet or a messenger is because it becomes incumbent upon Allah ‑ given His aim in bringing the slaves to their own specific perfection from before eternity in accordance with their essence and substance ‑ to teach His slaves the manner of their duties and worship and the gnosis whereby they may attain to His purpose. We would clarify this by saying that Allah has, by their various sense faculties and physical strength and by their differences of judgment and opinآ­ion enabled them to commit evil action or righteous action.
Thus it is incumbent upon Allah to send a prophet to them in order to direct them to the correct manner of behaviour and social contract (that is the code of the shari`ah). This lutf is incumآ­bent upon Him as we have already mentioned above. Moreover, since Allah cannot be perceived by the senses, since not everyone has the power to receive this understanding from Him himself and since instruction of His slaves without an intermediary is not possible, it is incumbent upon Him to appoint a group of messengers as a connecting link between Himself and them. In this way the messengers take (instructions) from Him and deliver them to His slaves.
It is necessary too that the prophets or messengers who take on the pattern and qualities of Allah be infallible, that is, be free from any minor or major misdeed from the very beginning of their lives until the end. In this way, their words and actions gain the trust of the people. Thus it has been said that it is not permissible for the messengers to commit bad actions or to fail in their obligations, but that they still live in a manner which does not put them beyond the realm of free choice. In this way the intellect of the people are not alienated from them and they trust in that which is being brought by them as a kind of divine grace. This divine grace is an obligation on Allah and it is called (in this case) `ismah ‑ or infallibility.
No one sent from His Presence to the people will be believed unless he confronts opposآ­ition and challenges to his call with an action which breaks the normal patterns of reality. It is this that is known as mu’jizah, and by necessity it is incumbent (upon Allah) to make these miracles appear at the hand of the messengers. It is necessary so that their mission is not invalidated and so that they do not fail in the purpose which Allah has assigned for them. Allah refers to this when He says, `Certainly Allah conferred a benefit upon the believers when He raised among them an Apostle from among themselves, reciting to them His communications and purifying them, and teaching them the Book and the wisdom, although before that they were surely in manifest error.' Such is the nature of this station with respect to the people of the shari'ah, and Allah is more Knowing and more Wise.

ii) According to the people of tariqah
Prophethood for the people of the spiritual path means knowledge of the divine realities and secrets of Lordship. It may be divided into two types, the prophethood of instruction in knowledge and the prophethood of instruction in the code of laws. The first means a transmission of gnosis of the Essence, Names and Attriآ­butes, and the second means all of the aforesaid together with a transmission of the laws, inculcation of courtesy and moral behaviour, instruction of wisdom and the establishment of a political framework, which are covered by the term of risalah or divine message. We shall now comment upon this term in more detail.
Know that there is an outward and an inward aspect to the Real. The inward contains the Divine Solitude of Truth which is in the realm of the Absolute Unseen. Multiplicity is in the realm of knowledge and the pre‑creational source‑forms. The outward is always dependent on multiplicity and there is no way that it can free itself of this. This is because manifestation of the Names and Attributes is only possible when each is assigned its own particular form; thus, of necessity, multiplicity exists. Since each of these particular forms is seeking its own relevant manifesآ­tation, area of authority and code of law, there arises conflict and strife among these specific forms. For this reason a manifesآ­tation of wisdom and justice becomes necessary in the form of an arbiter to judge between them and to maintain order in this world and the next. The arbiter rules by its Lord (who is the Lord of all lords) over the various Names in a just way and brings each of the names to its own perfection, both in the realm of the outward and the inward. Such an arbiter is the Prophet of Reality, the Pole of pre‑endless time, the first, the last. He is the Muhammadi reality mentioned by the Prophet Himself in his words: `I was a prophet when Adam was (in a state) between water and clay', that is, in a state between knowledge and corآ­poreal form.
As for the one who judges between the manifestations other than the Names, it is the prophet who attains to prophethood after his manifestation as the vicegerent of the Prophet of Reality. This prophet is sent to creation as a guide and a teacher who indicates the way to their perfection ‑ a perfection which is prescribed beforehand with respect to each in the realm of knowآ­ledge and in accordance with the respective capacities of their pre‑creational source‑forms. This prophet is either one who brings and establishes a particular code of law or one from among the prophets of the tribe of Israel (who reaffirmed the already established code). The prophetic mission is an expression of the special treatment of man by God. This special relationship issues from Him by means of His revelation.
This revelation is in the form of those divine emanations or unveilings which cause the bringing into being of the source‑forms in the realm of knowledge; these emanations are also known as the most sacred divine outآ­pourings. Since these outpourings, on becoming manifest, all seek by their nature to attain to the highest station ‑ according to the natural law whereby things of like quality strive to outdo each other ‑ Allah has elevated the rank of prophethood by means of the manifestation of miracles and supernatural events together with the corresponding challenge or opposition (from the opponents of the prophet) and has thus distinguished real prophethood from false prophethood. Thus the prophets are manifestations of the divine Essence by their authority over the other manifestations and by their standing in judgment between them.
Prophethood is particular to the realm of the outward; all prophets of necessity share the task of calling people to worship, guiding them and living among them. Prophethood is as a comآ­plete cycle which includes in it various finite cycles within the perfect enclosed space ‑ like, for example, the ulu'l‑`azm (those in authority) and the messengers and various prophets of the tribes of Israel within the enclosed dimensions which are not (in themselves) perfect. This then is the station of the people of tariqah with respect to prophethood, the message, the prophet and the messenger; and success is by Allah.

iii) According to the people of haqiqah
The station of this group occurs after establishment in the two above‑mentioned stations. It is the rank of absolute divine caliphate, although it has different ranks according to the rank of the person who is the manifestation of this caliphate. We have already explained some aspects of these ranks and we shall now continue to comment upon the rest.
Know that the prophethood of this group is an expression of the good news or revelation from the divine: the prophet is the one who is informed of the Essence of Allah and of His Attributes, His Names, His laws and His wishes. The real and essential prophetic announcement is nothing other than that. The Greater Spirit was sent by Allah to the First Universal Soul and from there to the particular individual soul in order to inform it, in the language of the intellect, of the Unity of Essence, the Attriآ­butes from before endless time, the divine Names, the illustrious laws and His revered will. Every prophet from Adam to Muhamآ­mad is a manifestation of the various manifestations of the prophethood of the Greater Spirit: the prophethood of the latter is essential and eternal; the prophethood of the various other manifestations is incidental and interrupted ‑ except that of the prophethood of Muhammad whose prophethood is eternal and uninterrupted since his reality is the reality of the Greater Spirit and his form includes the various forms in which this reality manifests.
The rest of the prophets manifest by means of some of the names and qualities: each manifestation is an emaآ­nation of one of the qualities, or one of the names, except that of the Muhammadi manifestation which emanates from the esآ­sence of the Greater Spirit and by means of all its qualities. Moreover, in this manifestation prophethood comes to a close. The Messenger, may Allah bless him and his family, preceded all the prophets with respect to the reality of prophethood, yet comes after them with respect to outward form. He himself has said: `We are the last and the first' and also `I was a prophet when Adam was (in a state) between water and clay.'
As for the description of the caliphate and the caliph, this has also been given in terms of the people of this station. When the authority of the eternal essence and that of the higher attributes demand an expansion of the divine kingdom and the unfurling of the banners of Lordship, it occurs by means of the manifestaآ­tion of creational realities and their subsequent subjugation by the executing and management of (creational) affairs, by the maintenance of the various ranks of existence and the elevation of the stations of witnessing.
The beginning of this whole affair issues from the original pre‑creational Essence and is therefore far removed from creation because of the distance of the relationآ­ship between the might of original pre‑creation and the abaseآ­ment of the transient‑contingent world. In order for all this to occur, the All‑Wise commands a vicegerent to take His place in matters of action, governance, maintenance and care. This viceآ­gerent possesses an aspect based in pre‑creational existence whereby he gains assistance from the Real and an aspect in contingent creation whereby he is assisted by creation. Thus Allah makes him his vicegerent or deputy.
He also invests him with the robe (the knowledge) of all His Names, empowers him by way of the authority of the caliphate with the governance of affairs and transfers rule of the people to him. He also hands over the execution of His commands within the spheres of His earthly kingdom and spiritual kingdoms and responsibility for the subjugation of creation to His rule and dominion. He named man insan (from the Arabic word for human being, whose root implies intimacy and friendship) because of the possibility of intimacy between him and the rest of creation. He also placed in him, by virtue of His two names ‑ the Outward and the Inward ‑ an inner reality and an outward form which thereby enables him to act in both the earthly and spiritual worlds. His inner reality is the Greater Spirit and by it man merits the role of the caliphate: the First Intellect is his vizier and his interpreter and the Universal Soul his treasurer and bondsman; Universal Nature is his agent and the head of the natural forces. As for his outward form, it is the form of the world from the Throne to the surface of the earth together with all the simpler and compound elements contained therein. This outward form is also the Cosmic Man, referred to by the scholars when they say, `The world is the greater man;' as for their words, `Man is the microآ­cosm,' they are here referring to man as an individual type and as the caliph of Allah on earth. As for the Cosmic Man, he is the Caliph of Allah in the heavens and the earth; the lesser man or microcosm is the selected copy of him, just as the son is the copy of the father.
The lesser man also has an inner reality and an outward form, the former being the individual spirit, the soul and the temperآ­ament and the latter a select copy of the form of the world: in it is contained in corresponding proportions every part of the world, be it of subtle or gross nature. Glory be to the One who made the whole in one of the parts. It has also been said: It is hardly something beyond belief if Allah were to gather the world in man ‑ as a faithful reflection of the whole ‑ and if he were to choose one particular person for this role. Indeed the forms of all persons result from the forms of Adam and Eve ‑ and by this we imply that they too in turn have issued from the Greater Spirit and the Universal Soul. The Cosmic Man is a manifestation of the Evident Reality and the lesser man attains to this by the annihilation of his individuality and the obliteration of his dependent or limited nature. From this state it will then be correct for him to declare that which certain persons would find obscure: Even if I am known simply as Adam's son, Therein lies meaning for me, as witnessed by my forefathers.
The reader should pay particular attention to this point, for it is the source of many finer points which in turn lead to an understanding of many truths; and Allah says the truth and guides to the correct path. With this we conclude our study of prophethood and the message within the framework of the three levels; we shall now begin our investigation of imamate.