رسول and نبي

[zj73]

Hi

I know both rasool and nabee mean prophet, but is there a difference between them? There must be or else the Qur'an would not say

﴿وَاذْكُرْ فِي الْكِتَابِ مُوسَى إِنَّهُ كَانَ مُخْلَصًا وَكَانَ رَسُولا نَبِيًّا (٥١) ﴾

 

[BaraaSh]

نبي = Prophet
رسول = Messenger

 

[Ali Smith]

One difference between them is that the plural of نبي is أنبياء, but the word رسول can be used as a plural as well as as a singular. Observe:

قَالَ كَلَّا ۖ فَاذْهَبَا بِآيَاتِنَا ۖ إِنَّا مَعَكُم مُّسْتَمِعُونَ (15) فَأْتِيَا فِرْعَوْنَ فَقُولَا إِنَّا رَسُولُ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ (16) أَنْ أَرْسِلْ مَعَنَا بَنِي إِسْرَائِيلَ (17) قَالَ أَلَمْ نُرَبِّكَ فِينَا وَلِيدًا وَلَبِثْتَ فِينَا مِنْ عُمُرِكَ سِنِينَ (18) وَفَعَلْتَ فَعْلَتَكَ الَّتِي فَعَلْتَ وَأَنتَ مِنَ الْكَافِرِينَ (19)

 

[Mahaodeh]

but the word رسول can be used as a plural as well as as a singular.

No it can not. This aya is a different case, it’s وضع المفرد موضع المثنّى (they are two not more so you would expect رسولا), which does happen in Classical Arabic although it’s not very common. نبي can be used in the same way.

You can also use the singular instead of the plural, this doesn’t change the fact that رسول is singular and it doesn’t automatically make it dual or plural.