al-Mahdawī said: "And this is the correct view that every Messenger is a Prophet, but not every Prophet is a Messenger. Similarly, al-Qāḍī ʿIyāḍ mentioned in his book "al-Shifāʾ," saying: 'The correct view held by the majority is that every Messenger is a Prophet, but not every Prophet is a Messenger,' and he supported this with the ḥadīth of Abū Dharr..." I said: The distinction in the verse is further confirmed by what Abū Bakr al-Anbārī narrated in his book "al-Radd" with his isnād from Ibn ʿAbbās (raḍiya Allāhu ʿanhu) that he recited: (And We did not send before you any Messenger, nor Prophet, nor Muḥaddath). Abū Bakr said: This ḥadīth is not to be taken as Qurʾān, and the Muḥaddath is the one who receives revelation in his sleep, for the dreams of the Prophets are revelation. I said: If this is authentic from Ibn ʿAbbās, it further confirms what we mentioned about the distinction, even if it does not establish it as Qurʾān. It is supported by the fact that this distinction was narrated from their student Mujāhid (raḥimahu Allāh), as al-Suyūṭī mentioned in "al-Durr" (4/366) by the narration of Ibn al-Mundhir and Ibn Abī Ḥātim from Mujāhid who said: "The Prophet alone is the one who is spoken to and receives revelation, but is not sent." This is a text from this eminent scholar in tafsīr, supporting what the scholars have consistently said about the distinction, which aligns with the apparent meaning of the Qurʾān and the explicit sunnah. The motivation for clarifying this was that I saw a collection of treatises by one of the esteemed scholars of the present age, including a treatise titled: "Ithāf al-Aḥfiyāʾ bi-Risālat al-Anbiyāʾ," in which he argued against the distinction between the Messenger and the Prophet. His research indicates to the knowledgeable investigator of the scholars' research and statements that the author, may Allāh preserve him, composed it spontaneously without exerting himself to research the scholars' statements on the issue. Otherwise, how could he have said (vol. 1, p. 429): 1 - "The earliest we saw who spoke of this distinction is the scholar Ibn Kathīr..."!