The Role of the Prophet as the Agent or Receiver of Revelation of the Quran

Some intellectual thinkers who have non-religious viewpoint and study revelation from a non-Quranic perspective, bring up the subject of religious experience and claim an agent role for the Prophet in the act of revelation. For them, God has merely granted a capability to the Prophet or other people and via this special gift and ability, they can utter words by themselves and under the influence of their own contemporary culture and these very words make up the Holy Book. The present paper attempts to criticize this claim based on Quranic verses as well as religion evidence and proof and also through a re-reading of the role of the Holy Prophet (PBUH) in the revelation of the Quran. We argue that the Prophet, in the revelation of the Quran, had the role of a receiver and not that of an agent. The Quran is not the result of the religious experience of the Prophet and is not his words; rather, it is the very word of God; that is to say, the Quran is directly sent from God and the Prophet was merely the receiver of these words.