Difference Between a Prophet And a Messiah

The word "prophet" is used for those people who were chosen by God to deliver His message to the nation they were sent to. This message was revealed by the Almighty to the prophet, who informed his nation of the Day of Judgment, the consequences of their actions and invited them towards God and His religion. Some of the prophets were also appointed as messengers by the Almighty over time and, in addition to their duties as prophets, they were also protected by the Almighty and a judgment was passed on the nation in this world by the time of the messenger's death.1

Messiah seems to have been derived from the Hebrew word "Mashiach" used in the Torah. In those times, the kings and the prophets, when they took office of leadership went through the process of 'anointing' and became messiahs. Rabbi Albert Shulman, in his "Gateway to Judaism" writes,

King Saul was anointed through such a process. (See: 1 Samuel 9) Prophet David (pbuh) also went through a similar process in order to become a king of Israel.

In the later days, Israel waited for a king to arise that would save them from the sufferings and hardships of foreign powers. For instance,

During the rule of the Romans, Jesus (pbuh) emerged as the Messiah who called himself the "King of the Jews" that Israel was waiting for. As a result, the group from amongst the Jews who accept Jesus appended Christ (which is the Greek for Messiah) to his name. It seems that the definite term "The Messiah" thereon was an epithet used for Jesus (pbuh) amongst the Arabs due to Arabic's closeness with Hebrew and, consequently, Quran applied it according to the same usage. Therefore, in Quranic parlance, the word "Al-Maseeh" is used specifically for Jesus (pbuh).