رسول، مرسل
Rasūl, Mursal
Nouns from one root for a person devoted to al-risālah, the commission to convey God’s message.
What it means
Rasūl and mursal both come from the root of risālah. A rasūl is one sent with a message, and a mursal is one who has been sent. In the Quran the words denote a messenger of God, a person devoted to the commission of conveying His message. The Quran names many messengers and says that a messenger was sent to every community (16:36). It calls Muhammad (peace be upon him) the Messenger of God and the seal of the prophets (33:40). In the common usage of scholars, every rasūl is a nabiyy, and the term often points to those who brought a scripture or a law.
Often misunderstood as
That “messenger” means a postman, when it denotes someone commissioned by God with a revelation.
Term and Arabic as listed in Ismail al Faruqi, Toward Islamic English (International Institute of Islamic Thought, 1995), p. 33, listed as RASŪL, MURSAL. The definition is restated here.