Teaching is the profession of Prophets ::
Teaching is being considered as a profession of prophets, because of many reasons. Here we will discuss prophet and teaching separately then teaching as the profession of prophet.
Prophet;-
According to the dictionary prophet is ‘a spokes man of deity’ or ‘person who is from God and speaks always truth and works for society.’
Prophecy;-
Prediction, inspired utterance and speaks prophetically
Prophetic;-
Pertaining to thing to come.
The role of prophet;-
The role of prophet was to give the message from God, as it was given to him, to the people. Every prophet was chosen to bring reforms in the existing society of the time to prevail the truth and goodness.
The Holy Prophet of Islam :
The Holy Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) is the last Prophet of Islam. He is the one of Prophet who is sent by Allah Muhammad literally means the praised. One and the Holy Quran says: Allah sends down His blessing on the prophet and his angles pray for him. O ye who believe you too should invoke God’s blessings on him salute him with the solution of peace. (33: 57). Prophet Muhammad (s.a.a.w.) lived a life of poverty from the day he was born till the day he died. Whenever, he had anything valuable, be it food, money, gold, or sheep, he preferred to give all away, even when he and his family were in need.
In an agreed upon hadeeth, the Prophet (s.a.a.w.) said, "If I had as much gold as the weight of Uhud, it would not please me to have a single dinar out of it with me after the passage of three days, but I would hold back something for the repayment of a debt. I would distribute it among the slaves of Allah like this and like this and like this.'' And he (PBUH) pointed in front of him, and on his right side and on his left side. We then walked a little further and he (PBUH) said: "The rich would be poor on the Day of Resurrection, except he who spent like this and like this and like this,” and he pointed as he did the first time. "But such persons are few".
Muhammad was commanded by Allah (God) to recite the words that would later become Islam's holy book, the Qur'an (or Koran). As the revelations continued, Muhammad preached publicly of the duty to submit to the one true god, gaining followers and earning the enmity of the polytheistic authorities. To escape persecution, Muhammad was forced to flee in 622 to Yathrib (later called Medina). His poetic recitations and pleas for social justice continued to win converts, and Muhammad was repeatedly called into battle in his efforts to unite Arabia behind the faith known as Islam (meaning "submission").
Prophets in Judaism: The prophets of the desert in the Old Testament have become so much part of our being; they left the cities shocked by the decadence, the greed of our civilizations, and sought instructions from the voice of God. And if a person walk for hours and days in the desert, then he have a sense of great purity , he is away from the pollution and the decadence of the cities and the selfishness and the greed and the money-making. And everything is silent, and the slightest breeze comes to him like a voice that is talking to him. So, he is very open to the message of the universe to the cosmos. And so he interpret it, of course in his limited way, but still he has been inspired by that sense of the need to give direction to human beings, so that they don't do those terrible things that are happening now in our time more and more. So, that is called the message – it is the word "the message". The messenger receives a message and transmits that message to the people. And then they come back in the cities with the power of God, and that power is so great that people are very impressed by that power that is coming through the power of Moses, the power of Abraham, the power of Melchisedek. And so, somehow that message is still working all the time.We have a sense that the destinies of humanity are being shepherded by the divine guidance, but that guidance can only work if we recognize it. So, the quality here is of course to be open to guidance of the prophets. And I think that this message is embodied in those words of Pir-o-Murshid, when he says: In the beginning of the universe everything is in a state of chaos, and gradually every being is trying to find its place in the scheme of things. So that orderliness is born out of chaos. And so, what we call the law is that power of orderliness that brings order into chaos. That's the message of Israel.
Abraham is a giant amongst prophets. He is the founder of the religion of the one God, to which Israel belongs. It includes Christianity and Islam. The greatness of Abraham is such that he is admitted into the presence of God. He is given access to the divine intention. He has access to the planning, and he generates a whole race. He represents, therefore, the seed of God as man, in whom the divine being reaches a fullness, a fulfillment. There is a great significance in his mission. He is the Rasul, the archetype of Rasul, in which God finds his fulfillment. Of course, he is very wonderful; he is a king. “Abraham was the founder of Sufism”. one has to enter into the consciousness of that being, Abraham. His perfect counterpart is Melchizedek, the high priest who represents the divine order, whereas Abraham represents the divine power, majesty. It is a different attunement, and both are very, very important. Whenever a person is in a very high prayerful condition, he gets in tune with Melchizedek. When a person is conscious of his mission and what he has to uphold in his life, then he can get into the consciousness of Abraham. His consecration as a priest is where he find himself connection with Melchizedek, when he thinks of himself as being a priest in the Order of Melchizedek.
Prophets in Christianity
Christ is the good shepherd for people who believe in Him. He is very present in our hearts. He represents such a power of love, such an overcoming of hatred and resentment. Jesus Christ has compassion for the people. It is not having pity for people; it is suffering - with people – that is the meaning of compassion. Com-passion - suffering with people, putting yourself on line, as one says. Their suffering is your suffering. It is the power of love and forgiveness. And it is unconditioned love that, loves people who are difficult to love, who make themselves difficult to love. “We are tested in our love”. extraordinary humility, washing the feet of the disciples. And at the same time claiming to be the son of God, and even saying to everyone: be perfect as your father. That combination of the greatest pride together with the greatest humility. Pride in the divine inheritance, humility in one's personal identity. Opening one's heart to all beings without discrimination and without any kind of personal intent, personal guile. And that's why, as St. Paul says, Christ is present in your heart. So, we think of the historic Jesus, who healed people by the power of love, the Holy Spirit, and then the Cosmic Christ who is always present in our hearts. And it is the ultimate therapy - so that when you feel that you've been humiliated or abused by a person, just think of Christ, who said: Love your enemy. And you can open your heart to the person who has offended you, and perhaps you will be able to transform that person by your love.
Now let´s try and get into the consciousness of Christ. Perhaps you´ve seen the image of the shroud of Turin, because that is a clue. If you are able to get behind the appearance, all of a sudden you see this powerful being coming through, his eyes open, absolutely like he belongs to some other dimension or some other world altogether. He comes right through in your life. He doesn´t sit there somewhere on a mountain top; he comes right through with all his power and yet with a simple touch, the human touch, at the same time. It´s really a perfect example of God becoming man. Humility. Democracy is the outcome of insight when you see that all this is God. You get democracy instead of aristocracy, or you get this perfect combination between the two that Murshid speaks about. Christ gets in trouble with the law. He has tolerance for the sinners who are despised by other people. His love is so great that he’s become the heart of God; not just the being of God, but the heart more than anything else. For the first time you have the prophet really going into suffering, instead of just remaining very aloof or very sovereign. He shares in the suffering of people. He doesn’t despise those who are not able to overcome their personal selves. In fact, he is your being, with all your fragility and your struggle, while at the same time being the divine perfection. That’s the only way that the church fathers could say it was divine nature and human nature at the same time, the combination of those two; that’s dogma, but it was the only way of saying it. It represents a stage in the descent of God in manifestation, the consciousness of God in manifestation.
What is a Prophet?
Many people today think of a prophet as any person who sees the future. While the gift of prophecy certainly includes the ability to see the future, a prophet is far more than just a person with that ability.
A prophet is basically a spokesman for G-d, a person chosen by G-d to speak to people on G-d's behalf and convey a message or teaching. Prophets were role models of holiness, scholarship and closeness to G-d. They set the standards for the entire community.
The Hebrew word for a prophet, navi (Nun-Beit-Yod-Alef) comes from the term niv sefatayim meaning "fruit of the lips," which emphasizes the prophet's role as a speaker.
The Talmud teaches that there were hundreds of thousands of prophets: twice as many as the number of people who left Egypt, which was 600,000. But most of the prophets conveyed messages that were intended solely for their own generation and were not reported in scripture. Scripture identifies only 55 prophets of Israel.
A prophet is not necessarily a man. Scripture records the stories of seven female prophets, listed below, and the Talmud reports that Sarah's prophetic ability was superior to Abraham's.
AbrahamThe first Jew, the founder of Judaism, the physical and spiritual ancestor of the Jewish people. One of the three Patriarchs of Judaism.
A prophet is not necessarily a Jew. The Talmud reports that there were prophets among the gentiles (most notably Balaam, whose story is told in Numbers 22), although they were not as elevated as the prophets of Israel (as the story of Balaam demonstrates). And some of the prophets, such as Jonah, were sent on missions to speak to the gentiles.
According to some views, prophecy is not a gift that is arbitrarily conferred upon people; rather, it is the culmination of a person's spiritual and ethical development. When a person reaches a sufficient level of spiritual and ethical achievement, the Shechinah (Divine Spirit) comes to rest upon him or her. Likewise, the gift of prophecy leaves the person if that person lapses from his or her spiritual and ethical perfection.
Moses: The greatest of all of the prophets, who saw all that all of the other prophets combined saw, and more. The greatest of the prophets was Moses. It is said that Moses saw all that all of the other prophets combined saw, and more. Moses saw the whole of the Torah, including the Prophets and the Writings that were written hundreds of years later. All subsequent prophecy was merely an expression of what Moses had already seen. Thus, it is taught that nothing in the Prophets or the Writings can be in conflict with Moses' writings, because Moses saw it all in advance.
The Talmud states that the writings of the prophets will not be necessary in the World to Come, because in that day, all people will be mentally, spiritually and ethically perfect, and all will have the gift of prophecy.
3. PROPHET JEREMIAH'S MISSION
Mission of prophet JEREMIAH was to RE-UNITED ISRAELJEREMIAH RE-UNITED ALL TRIBES OF ISRAEL - UNIFICATION HAS ALREADY OCCURRED Jeremiah, from the tribe of Benjamin, was ordained a prophet before he was born, but the approximate time he began his mission was around 626 BCE, and lasted some 40 - 42 years. Ordained a prophet to the nations of Israel, Jeremiah spoke to them about the warnings from the Elohiym, and of critical events that would occur in their lives, which would forever change the structure and path of the Hebrew people for years to come.
Jeremiah's character was displayed as a humble, timid character with many troubles, but one who would carry out his mission without fail, which was perhaps, by far the most vital mission ever executed for the benefit of the entire descendants of Jacob. Jeremiah knew about the coming disasters that would befall the kingdom of Judah, and learned of its total demise. The kingdom of Judah, for all intents and purposes, was to be destroyed, except for a small remnant of women, children, and perhaps elderly males. Not one male descendant from the line of David would survive, who was capable of taking over as 'king' of the southern kingdom of Judah. The remnant of Judah that were saved, by the Elohiym power and authority, ended up in the hands of Jeremiah - and thus his purpose in life begins, albeit, not until he had seen the crown and authority of Judah taken away and then replanted in a new city and country. A new land, a new 'Jerusalem', would be given to the Hebrew Israelites. What was once the Holy city of Jerusalem had fallen into utter desolation, never to be totally revived. A new nation would take up the torch of 'peace teachers’; a new nation would become the 'city of peace'. THE OLD JERUSALEM, AND ITS PEOPLE, HAD BEEN THROWN DOWN - but this was to be only the first time that Jerusalem was to be 'overturned'.
Jer 1:9-10 "Then the LORD put forth his hand, and touched [Jeremiah's] mouth. And the LORD said unto me, Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth. See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms [of Israel], to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant."
ConclusionAll prophets are sent by God. They are messenger of God. They talk about the future. All the prophets speak about God and for God. People should believe them because they are the voice of God.
Reference list:
Taneja, V. (1990). Educational thought and practice. New Delhi: Sterling Pulishers.
Purkait, B. (2001). Great educators and their philosophies. Kolkata: Central Book Agency.
Teaching is being considered as a profession of prophets, because of many reasons. Here we will discuss prophet and teaching separately then teaching as the profession of prophet.
Prophet;-
According to the dictionary prophet is ‘a spokes man of deity’ or ‘person who is from God and speaks always truth and works for society.’
Prophecy;-
Prediction, inspired utterance and speaks prophetically
Prophetic;-
Pertaining to thing to come.
The role of prophet;-
The role of prophet was to give the message from God, as it was given to him, to the people. Every prophet was chosen to bring reforms in the existing society of the time to prevail the truth and goodness.
The Holy Prophet of Islam :
The Holy Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) is the last Prophet of Islam. He is the one of Prophet who is sent by Allah Muhammad literally means the praised. One and the Holy Quran says: Allah sends down His blessing on the prophet and his angles pray for him. O ye who believe you too should invoke God’s blessings on him salute him with the solution of peace. (33: 57). Prophet Muhammad (s.a.a.w.) lived a life of poverty from the day he was born till the day he died. Whenever, he had anything valuable, be it food, money, gold, or sheep, he preferred to give all away, even when he and his family were in need.
In an agreed upon hadeeth, the Prophet (s.a.a.w.) said, "If I had as much gold as the weight of Uhud, it would not please me to have a single dinar out of it with me after the passage of three days, but I would hold back something for the repayment of a debt. I would distribute it among the slaves of Allah like this and like this and like this.'' And he (PBUH) pointed in front of him, and on his right side and on his left side. We then walked a little further and he (PBUH) said: "The rich would be poor on the Day of Resurrection, except he who spent like this and like this and like this,” and he pointed as he did the first time. "But such persons are few".
Muhammad was commanded by Allah (God) to recite the words that would later become Islam's holy book, the Qur'an (or Koran). As the revelations continued, Muhammad preached publicly of the duty to submit to the one true god, gaining followers and earning the enmity of the polytheistic authorities. To escape persecution, Muhammad was forced to flee in 622 to Yathrib (later called Medina). His poetic recitations and pleas for social justice continued to win converts, and Muhammad was repeatedly called into battle in his efforts to unite Arabia behind the faith known as Islam (meaning "submission").
Prophets in Judaism: The prophets of the desert in the Old Testament have become so much part of our being; they left the cities shocked by the decadence, the greed of our civilizations, and sought instructions from the voice of God. And if a person walk for hours and days in the desert, then he have a sense of great purity , he is away from the pollution and the decadence of the cities and the selfishness and the greed and the money-making. And everything is silent, and the slightest breeze comes to him like a voice that is talking to him. So, he is very open to the message of the universe to the cosmos. And so he interpret it, of course in his limited way, but still he has been inspired by that sense of the need to give direction to human beings, so that they don't do those terrible things that are happening now in our time more and more. So, that is called the message – it is the word "the message". The messenger receives a message and transmits that message to the people. And then they come back in the cities with the power of God, and that power is so great that people are very impressed by that power that is coming through the power of Moses, the power of Abraham, the power of Melchisedek. And so, somehow that message is still working all the time.We have a sense that the destinies of humanity are being shepherded by the divine guidance, but that guidance can only work if we recognize it. So, the quality here is of course to be open to guidance of the prophets. And I think that this message is embodied in those words of Pir-o-Murshid, when he says: In the beginning of the universe everything is in a state of chaos, and gradually every being is trying to find its place in the scheme of things. So that orderliness is born out of chaos. And so, what we call the law is that power of orderliness that brings order into chaos. That's the message of Israel.
Abraham is a giant amongst prophets. He is the founder of the religion of the one God, to which Israel belongs. It includes Christianity and Islam. The greatness of Abraham is such that he is admitted into the presence of God. He is given access to the divine intention. He has access to the planning, and he generates a whole race. He represents, therefore, the seed of God as man, in whom the divine being reaches a fullness, a fulfillment. There is a great significance in his mission. He is the Rasul, the archetype of Rasul, in which God finds his fulfillment. Of course, he is very wonderful; he is a king. “Abraham was the founder of Sufism”. one has to enter into the consciousness of that being, Abraham. His perfect counterpart is Melchizedek, the high priest who represents the divine order, whereas Abraham represents the divine power, majesty. It is a different attunement, and both are very, very important. Whenever a person is in a very high prayerful condition, he gets in tune with Melchizedek. When a person is conscious of his mission and what he has to uphold in his life, then he can get into the consciousness of Abraham. His consecration as a priest is where he find himself connection with Melchizedek, when he thinks of himself as being a priest in the Order of Melchizedek.
Prophets in Christianity
Christ is the good shepherd for people who believe in Him. He is very present in our hearts. He represents such a power of love, such an overcoming of hatred and resentment. Jesus Christ has compassion for the people. It is not having pity for people; it is suffering - with people – that is the meaning of compassion. Com-passion - suffering with people, putting yourself on line, as one says. Their suffering is your suffering. It is the power of love and forgiveness. And it is unconditioned love that, loves people who are difficult to love, who make themselves difficult to love. “We are tested in our love”. extraordinary humility, washing the feet of the disciples. And at the same time claiming to be the son of God, and even saying to everyone: be perfect as your father. That combination of the greatest pride together with the greatest humility. Pride in the divine inheritance, humility in one's personal identity. Opening one's heart to all beings without discrimination and without any kind of personal intent, personal guile. And that's why, as St. Paul says, Christ is present in your heart. So, we think of the historic Jesus, who healed people by the power of love, the Holy Spirit, and then the Cosmic Christ who is always present in our hearts. And it is the ultimate therapy - so that when you feel that you've been humiliated or abused by a person, just think of Christ, who said: Love your enemy. And you can open your heart to the person who has offended you, and perhaps you will be able to transform that person by your love.
Now let´s try and get into the consciousness of Christ. Perhaps you´ve seen the image of the shroud of Turin, because that is a clue. If you are able to get behind the appearance, all of a sudden you see this powerful being coming through, his eyes open, absolutely like he belongs to some other dimension or some other world altogether. He comes right through in your life. He doesn´t sit there somewhere on a mountain top; he comes right through with all his power and yet with a simple touch, the human touch, at the same time. It´s really a perfect example of God becoming man. Humility. Democracy is the outcome of insight when you see that all this is God. You get democracy instead of aristocracy, or you get this perfect combination between the two that Murshid speaks about. Christ gets in trouble with the law. He has tolerance for the sinners who are despised by other people. His love is so great that he’s become the heart of God; not just the being of God, but the heart more than anything else. For the first time you have the prophet really going into suffering, instead of just remaining very aloof or very sovereign. He shares in the suffering of people. He doesn’t despise those who are not able to overcome their personal selves. In fact, he is your being, with all your fragility and your struggle, while at the same time being the divine perfection. That’s the only way that the church fathers could say it was divine nature and human nature at the same time, the combination of those two; that’s dogma, but it was the only way of saying it. It represents a stage in the descent of God in manifestation, the consciousness of God in manifestation.
What is a Prophet?
Many people today think of a prophet as any person who sees the future. While the gift of prophecy certainly includes the ability to see the future, a prophet is far more than just a person with that ability.
A prophet is basically a spokesman for G-d, a person chosen by G-d to speak to people on G-d's behalf and convey a message or teaching. Prophets were role models of holiness, scholarship and closeness to G-d. They set the standards for the entire community.
The Hebrew word for a prophet, navi (Nun-Beit-Yod-Alef) comes from the term niv sefatayim meaning "fruit of the lips," which emphasizes the prophet's role as a speaker.
The Talmud teaches that there were hundreds of thousands of prophets: twice as many as the number of people who left Egypt, which was 600,000. But most of the prophets conveyed messages that were intended solely for their own generation and were not reported in scripture. Scripture identifies only 55 prophets of Israel.
A prophet is not necessarily a man. Scripture records the stories of seven female prophets, listed below, and the Talmud reports that Sarah's prophetic ability was superior to Abraham's.
AbrahamThe first Jew, the founder of Judaism, the physical and spiritual ancestor of the Jewish people. One of the three Patriarchs of Judaism.
A prophet is not necessarily a Jew. The Talmud reports that there were prophets among the gentiles (most notably Balaam, whose story is told in Numbers 22), although they were not as elevated as the prophets of Israel (as the story of Balaam demonstrates). And some of the prophets, such as Jonah, were sent on missions to speak to the gentiles.
According to some views, prophecy is not a gift that is arbitrarily conferred upon people; rather, it is the culmination of a person's spiritual and ethical development. When a person reaches a sufficient level of spiritual and ethical achievement, the Shechinah (Divine Spirit) comes to rest upon him or her. Likewise, the gift of prophecy leaves the person if that person lapses from his or her spiritual and ethical perfection.
Moses: The greatest of all of the prophets, who saw all that all of the other prophets combined saw, and more. The greatest of the prophets was Moses. It is said that Moses saw all that all of the other prophets combined saw, and more. Moses saw the whole of the Torah, including the Prophets and the Writings that were written hundreds of years later. All subsequent prophecy was merely an expression of what Moses had already seen. Thus, it is taught that nothing in the Prophets or the Writings can be in conflict with Moses' writings, because Moses saw it all in advance.
The Talmud states that the writings of the prophets will not be necessary in the World to Come, because in that day, all people will be mentally, spiritually and ethically perfect, and all will have the gift of prophecy.
3. PROPHET JEREMIAH'S MISSION
Mission of prophet JEREMIAH was to RE-UNITED ISRAELJEREMIAH RE-UNITED ALL TRIBES OF ISRAEL - UNIFICATION HAS ALREADY OCCURRED Jeremiah, from the tribe of Benjamin, was ordained a prophet before he was born, but the approximate time he began his mission was around 626 BCE, and lasted some 40 - 42 years. Ordained a prophet to the nations of Israel, Jeremiah spoke to them about the warnings from the Elohiym, and of critical events that would occur in their lives, which would forever change the structure and path of the Hebrew people for years to come.
Jeremiah's character was displayed as a humble, timid character with many troubles, but one who would carry out his mission without fail, which was perhaps, by far the most vital mission ever executed for the benefit of the entire descendants of Jacob. Jeremiah knew about the coming disasters that would befall the kingdom of Judah, and learned of its total demise. The kingdom of Judah, for all intents and purposes, was to be destroyed, except for a small remnant of women, children, and perhaps elderly males. Not one male descendant from the line of David would survive, who was capable of taking over as 'king' of the southern kingdom of Judah. The remnant of Judah that were saved, by the Elohiym power and authority, ended up in the hands of Jeremiah - and thus his purpose in life begins, albeit, not until he had seen the crown and authority of Judah taken away and then replanted in a new city and country. A new land, a new 'Jerusalem', would be given to the Hebrew Israelites. What was once the Holy city of Jerusalem had fallen into utter desolation, never to be totally revived. A new nation would take up the torch of 'peace teachers’; a new nation would become the 'city of peace'. THE OLD JERUSALEM, AND ITS PEOPLE, HAD BEEN THROWN DOWN - but this was to be only the first time that Jerusalem was to be 'overturned'.
Jer 1:9-10 "Then the LORD put forth his hand, and touched [Jeremiah's] mouth. And the LORD said unto me, Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth. See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms [of Israel], to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant."
ConclusionAll prophets are sent by God. They are messenger of God. They talk about the future. All the prophets speak about God and for God. People should believe them because they are the voice of God.
Reference list:
Taneja, V. (1990). Educational thought and practice. New Delhi: Sterling Pulishers.
Purkait, B. (2001). Great educators and their philosophies. Kolkata: Central Book Agency.
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