Encyclopedia of Islam

resurrection

  See 

afterlife

; 

death

; 

eschatology

; 

j

udgment

 d

ay

.

revelation

Communication of knowledge by words, visions, 

and inspiration from sacred, supramundane 

beings to humans is known as revelation. It usu-

ally involves disclosure of a truth, or set of truths, 

that has been previously hidden or unknown. 

Revelation is a phenomenon recognized by many 

if not all religious systems.

In Judaism, Christianity, and Islam revelation 

is most commonly associated with prophets—

individuals chosen by God to deliver his word 

to humans. Jewish rabbinic tradition regards the 

written and oral t

orah

 as a revelation “given” by 

God to m

oses

 and accepted by the community 

of Israel above all nations. Moreover, the written 

Torah bears witness to God’s actions in the his-

tory of the Hebrews, from the covenant times of 

the patriarchs and the events in e

gypt

 and Sinai 

to the building of the temple in Jerusalem and its 

destruction by the Babylonians. Christian tradi-

tion holds the Old Testament (the Hebrew Bible 

or written Torah) to be a preliminary revelation, 

but it considers Christ (J

esUs

), the son of God, 

the most perfect and complete revelation of God 

to humanity. The New Testament bears witness to 

this and is itself considered to be the product of 

divine inspiration. Also, the last book of the New 

Testament, known as The Revelation to John (or 

The Apocalypse of John), contains visions about 

the future revealed to John by Christ.

In Islamic belief the q

Uran

 is the final, most 

perfect revelation from God. It was preceded by 

revelations delivered to former prophets in the 

course of human history, but in its final form it 

embodies the speech of God revealed (literally 

“sent down”) to m

Uhammad

 on different occasions 

between 610 and 632 while he was living in both 

m

ecca

 and m

edina

. The terms used for this rev-

elation are based on the Arabic root n-z-l (tanzil

and  nuzul), which connotes downward move-

ment. Muslim scholars developed a genre of exe-

getical literature called asbab al-nuzul that sought 

to identify the different historical “occasions” 

when revelation came to Muhammad, often situ-

ations involving interactions with human, rather 

than divine, interlocutors. Although there are 

tensions between the divine and human elements