نبي
Nabiyy
A prophet: one who receives God’s message word for word, is ordered to convey it, and exemplifies its precepts in his own life; plural anbiyā’.
What it means
A nabiyy is a person chosen by God to receive a message from Him word for word, with the express order to convey it to people and to show its precepts in his own life. The plural is anbiyā’. The Quran names many of them, from Adam and Noah to Abraham, Moses, Jesus and Muhammad (peace be upon them all). The Quran calls Muhammad the seal of the prophets (33:40). Muslims therefore hold that prophethood ended with him, and that every earlier prophet brought the same call to worship God alone. A nabiyy is distinguished in common usage from a rasūl, the bearer of a message to a people, although the two words often overlap.
Often misunderstood as
That “prophet” in English means a foreteller of the future, when the Arabic word is about receiving and delivering revelation.
Term and Arabic as listed in Ismail al Faruqi, Toward Islamic English (International Institute of Islamic Thought, 1995), p. 45, listed as NABIYY. The definition is restated here.