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121person or people intended.” It is evident that a divine message need not necessarily be a foretelling of past and future events. In the same way verb “prophesy” does not necessarily mean to reveal the past or future occurrences, but rather to preach or promulgate the message from God. Consequently to prophesy is to deliver and utter a new oracle, its nature or character being quite immaterial. To read the words of a prophet would be to prophesy no more than would a prophet deliver an oracle when making a discourse or public speech of his own accord. In the Quran God orders His beloved servant Muhammad (pbuh) to declare: “I am flesh like unto yourselves; only revelation comes to me,” etc., so that we may be careful not to attribute to any of the prophets the quality of knowing and saying everything through the revelation. The divine revelations used to come at intervals, while the prophets in their personal intercourse and knowledge might be liable to mistakes and errors. A prophet is not appointed by God to teach humanity physics,Mathematics or any other positive science. It would be very unjust on our part to blame a prophet for a slip of language or a mistake committed as a man.A prophet, therefore, is the subject of test and examination only when he officially and formally delivers the message he has received from his Lord. His private affairs, his family concerns, and his personal attainments do not concern us as much as his mission and office. In order to find out whether a prophet is genuine or an impostor, it is not fair to give a verdict against his prophetical character because he is reported to have been a little harsh or rude to his mother or because he believed in the literal inspiration and the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch. While making this observation, I have in mind the case of Jesus (pbuh) Christ, and many others in the history of Israel on other points.