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What is the difference between Nabi and Rasool?
According to Ilm-e-Kalam, Nabi is he who preaches Allah’s religion to people, teaches them the religion, guides them to the right path; it is not necessary that he comes with a shariah, rather he might preach some early shariah. But Rasool is he who brings shariah as well as a scripture with him.
There is another difference mentioned in hadith. According to "Usool-e-Kafi" (Bab-al-Farq bain an-Nabi war-Rasool), Nabi is he who meets the angel in dream only, listens to him, but doesn’t meet him while awake. Rasool is superior: he meets the angel in both awakening and dream, and listens to the message carried by him.
In short, Rasool is superior to Nabi. According to popular belief of ulema, there were 1,024,000 Nabi’s among whom 313 were Rasool’s; among the 313 Rasool’s, there were 5 Ool-ul-Azm Rasool's:
- Hazrat Nuh (Noah) (AS)
- Hazrat Ibrahim (Abraham) (AS)
- Hazrat Musa (Moses) (AS)
- Hazrat Isa (Jesus) (AS)
- Hazrat Muhammad (SAWAW)