A study of W. Montgomery Watt's view on revelation

W. Montgomery Watt is one of the Orientalists Quranic researchers and Christian historiographer who has dealt with the personality, lifestyle of the prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him and his households) and the Quranic subjects from a historical and analytical perspective. He has based his research on a critical analysis of the earliest sources. One of the important topics the orientalists including W. Montgomery Watt have dealt with is revelation. Revelation and its related issues are of high significance among the Muslims. The current research tries to describe and analyze W. Montgomery Watt's reflections on revelation that are derived from his most important works on the Quran, history of Islam and prophetic lifestyle. The current paper deals with W. Montgomery Watt's most significant views as following: the lexical and technical concepts of revelation, the difference between revelation and inspiration, the origin and purpose of revelation and the methods of descending revelation. Moreover he touches the doubt or certainty of the prophet on receiving the revelation, revelation and cognition of the world, revelation and intervention of God in the history, the impact of the prophet's personality on the form of revelation, fallibility of revelation and the human nature [characteristics] of the prophet (peace be upon him and his progeny).