Home » Reading & Literature » Folklore » Nabi

Nabi

© Virginia Marin

Folklore Table of Contents

The word "nabi" in Hebrew means prophet, and refers to one who speaks forth or makes a solemn pronouncement. In its purest form, a prophet is the servant of God. He is also called a "seer." Many cultures have their particular brand of seers. A seer can also be an alchemist. "Seer" stems from the word "ra'ah" which means to see. The seer, or prophet, is given the gift of seeing certain things which would otherwise be unseen to the natural eye. He is also a "forth-teller", not to be confused with fortune teller. The function of a seer, in days of old, was to reveal things which were not yet revealed, and to fortell events which were yet future. The predicted events came to pass in a few hours, a few days or a few years. The seer was also a storyteller, extraordinaire...

According to the Koran there have been 200,000 prophets. Only the Hebrew prophets and Mohammed are herein considered. Of this number, only six of them brought new laws or dispensations: Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Mohammed.

In addition to these six prophets, the five major Biblical or Hebrew prophets are Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel, so called because their writings are more extensive than the prophecies of twelve other well known prophets.

The other twelve, known as minor or lesser Prophets, are Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Micah, Jonah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi, all of whom did less extensive writings than those of the great prophets. Of these twenty-three, only Mohammed is known by the title of THE PROPHET."

Mohammed is the titular name of the founder of Islam, or Mohammedanism, adopted by him at the time of the Hegira. His original name is given both as Kotham and as Halabi. He was born at Mecca c. 570 and died at Medina in 632.

Mohammed was a gifted speaker. After he was reportedly transported to Heaven, he said of one event: "I saw there an angel, the most gigantic of all created beings. It had 70,000 heads, each head had 70,000 faces, each face had 70,000 mouths, each mouth had 70,000 tongues, and each tongue spoke 70,000 languages, while all were employed in singing God's praises." THE PROPHET was neither timid in his religious calling, nor were his life and death void of legend.

The prophets of Israel, however, were often reluctant to enter into the Divine calling. Moses argued interminably with the Lord making excuses of not being a gifted speaker. Amos argued with God that he was not the son of a prophet, but only an unworthy herdsman and farmer. Isaih said that he was a man of unclean lips and not fit to be a prophet. Jeremiah claimed that his youth prevented him from speaking as required. Although these men were reluctant to enter into the ministry, they did, in the end, obey God.

The copyright of the article Nabi in Folklore is owned by Virginia Marin. Permission to republish Nabi in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.