It is the highest form of revelation

Though the Holy Qur’ān was revealed piecemeal through Gabriel, yet the entire revelation is one whole, delivered in one and the same manner. Revelation, we are told in the Holy Qur’ān, is granted to man in three forms: “And it is not vouchsafed to any mortal that Allāh should speak to him, except by revelation (waḥy) or from behind a veil, or by sending a messenger and revealing by His permission what He pleases” (42:51). The first of these three modes is called waḥy, which is generally translated as meaning revelation. Since the different kinds of revelation are spoken of here, the word waḥy is obviously used in its literal sense, its primary significance being a hasty suggestion (al-ishārat al-sarī‘ah) (R.). Hence the inspired word, which enters the hearts of the prophets and of the righteous, is called waḥy because it is like a sudden suggestion made directly to the heart of the inspired one (ilqā-’un fi’l-rau‘). It is not a message in words but simply an idea which comes like a flash and clears up a doubt or difficulty, and it is not the result of meditation.6 The second mode is described as speaking from behind a veil — a scene, carrying a deeper significance, is shown as in a vision (kashf), or in a dream (ru’yā), or words are heard by the person spoken to, as if coming from behind a veil. The third mode is that in which the angel bearing the message is sent to the recipient of the Divine revelation, and the message is delivered in words, and this is the highest form of revelation. As already stated, the angel entrusted with Divine message in words is Gabriel or the Holy Spirit, and this third mode of revelation is limited to the prophets of God only — to men entrusted with important Divine messages to humanity — while the first two lower forms of revelation are common to prophets as well as those who are not prophets. For the delivery of the higher message which relates to the welfare of mankind, a higher form of revelation is chosen, a form in which the message is not simply an idea but is clothed in actual words. The Holy Prophet’s faculty of being spoken to by God is so highly developed that he receives the messages, not only as ideas instilled into the mind or in the form of words uttered or heard under the influence of the Holy Spirit, but actually as Divine messages in words delivered through the latter. In the terminology of