How Many Prophets & Messengers?
Prophets are personalities whom the Almighty reveals divine guidance so that they can guide people. However, not every Prophet is a Messenger. Messengerhood is a position bestowed to only some prophets . According to its details furnished by the Quran, a Rasul (Messenger) decides the fate of his addressees and implements the judgement of God on them in this very world. The Quran informs us that this final phase in the preaching endeavor of a Rasul comes after it passes through the phases of: indhar [warning] indhar-i ‘am [common, augmented and pronounced warning] itmam al-hujjah [Conclusive conveyance of truth, communicating the truth to the extent that no one among its addressees is left with an excuse to deny it.] and hijrah wa bara’ah [Migration and acquittal]. It is in this phase that the divine court of justice is set up on this earth. Punishment is meted out to the rejecters of the truth and those who have accepted it are rewarded, and, in this way, a miniature Day of Judgement is witnessed on the face of the earth. Adapted from Meezan by Javed Ahmad Ghamidi, Principles of interpretation of Quran, section vii – Subject-Matter of the Quran