رسل

رَسُولٌ ذ i. q. رِسَالَةٌ: (S, M, K:) see the latter, in five places. ― -b2- Hence, as meaning ذُو رَسُولٍ, i. e. ذُو رِسَالَةٍ [ One who has a message; i. e. a messenger ]; (TA;) i. q. ↓ مُرْسَلٌ, (S, M, K,) meaning one sent with a message; (S;) of the measure فَعُولٌ in the sense of the measure مَفْعُولٌ [or rather مُفْعَلٌ]: (Msb:) [and often meaning an apostle of God; and with the article ال especially applied to Mohammad:] accord. to IAmb, its meaning in the proper language of the Arabs is one who carries on by consecutive progressions the relation of the tidings of him who has sent him; taken from the phrase جَاآءَتِ الاـِبِلُ رَسَلًا, meaning “ The camels came following one another: ” and the saying of the Muëdhdhin, أَشْهَدُ أَنَّ مُحَمَّدًا رَسُولُ ا@للّٰه means I know [or acknowledge ] and declare that Mohammad is the relater by consecutive progressions of the tidings from God: (TA:) [or, as commonly understood, I testify that Mohammad is the apostle of God: ] a رَسُول is also called ↓ مِرْسَالٌ, as being likened to the arrow thus termed: (TA:) the pl. of رَسُولٌ is رُسُلٌ (S, M, Msb, K) and رُسْلٌ (S, Msb) and رُسَلَاآءٌ, (M, K,) which last is from IAar, (M,) or Fr, (Sgh,) and أَرْسُلٌ, (M, K,) which [is a pl. of pauc., and] occurs in the saying of the Hudhalee, لَوْكَانَ فِى قَلْبِى كَقَدْرِ قُلَامَةٍ حُبًا لِغَيْرِكِ قَدْ أَتَاهَا أَرْسُلِى [ Had there been in my heart as much as a nailparing of love for another than thee, my messengers (or, accord. to the TA, app., my messages ) had come to her ]: respecting which IJ says that he has given to رَسُولٌ this form of pl., which is [regularly] proper to feminines [of this class of words, consisting of four letter whereof the third is a letter of prolongation], such as أَتَانٌ and عَنَاقٌ and عُقَابٌ, because women are meant thereby, as they, generally, are the persons required to serve in cases of this kind: (M:) [for] رَسُولٌ is applied without variation to a male and a female, and to one [and to two] and to a pl. number; (S, M, Msb, K;) sometimes: (M:) i. e., it is allowable thus to apply it: (Msb:) hence, (S, K,) in the Kur [xxvi. 15], (S,) اـِنَّا رَسُولُ رَبِّ العَالَمِينَ [ Verily we are the apostles of the Lord of the beings of the whole world ]: (S, K:) MF says, in ch. xx. [verse 49], we find اـِنَّا رَسُولَا رَبِّكَ [ Verily we are the two apostles of thy Lord ]; the dual form being here used: and Z says, in the Ksh, that in this instance it means the messengers, and therefore the dual form is necessarily used; but in ch. xxvi. it means the message, and therefore it is allowable to use it alike, when applying it as an epithet, as sing. and dual and pl.: Aboo-Is-hak the Grammarian says that the meaning here is, اـِنَّا رِسَالَةٌ رَبِّ العَالَمِينَ, i. e. ذَوُو رِسالَةِ [ Verily we are those that have the message &c.]: (TA:) [but] رَسُولٌ [as meaning a messenger ] is like عَدُوٌّ and صَديقٌ [&c.] in its being used alike as masc. and fem. and sing. [and dual] and pl.: (Sgh, TA:) Aboo-Dhu-eyb uses it in the sense of رُسُل in his saying, أَلِكْنِى اـِلَيْهَا وَخَيْرُ الرَّسُو لِ أَعْلَمُهُمْ بِنَوَاحِى الخَبَرْ [ Be thou my messenger to her: and the best of messengers is the most knowing of them in respect of the bounds, or limits, of the tidings ]. (M.) See 4. The saying in the Kur [xxv. 39], وَقَوْمَ نُوحٍ لَمَّ كَذَّبُوا الرُّسُلَ أَغْرَقْنَاهُمْ [lit. And the people of Noah, when they charged with lying the apostles, we drowned them ], Zj says, may mean that they charged with lying Noah alone; for he who charges with lying a prophet charges therewith all the prophets, since they believe in God and in all his apostles; or the general term may be here used as meaning one; like as when you say, أَنْتَ مِمَّنْ يُنْفِقُ الدَّرَاهِمَ, meaning “ Thou art of those who expend the kind of things termed دراهم. ” (M.) ― -b3- One says also, السِّهَامُ رُسُلُ المَنَايَا (tropical:) [ Arrows are the messengers of death, or of the decrees of death ]. (TA.) ― -b4- See also the next paragraph.