The authentic Prophetic Hadeeth states that Allah (SWT) Has Granted Ali (AS) all the tributes and virtues which He Granted the Prophet Muhammad (SAWA) except the prophethood. Ali (AS) was gifted everything the Prophet (SAWA) was gifted but Ali (AS) is not a prophet because Muhammad (SAWA) is the last and final prophet and no phrophet after him.
‘The Prophet gets the message from Allah (SWT) to convey it to people. Imam preserves the religion and the message of the Prophet and protects the religion from deviation and teach people the real Islam. Imam continues and preserves and protects the religion.
‘Imam Ali (AS) was taught by the Prophet Muhammad (SAWA) every matter in Islam, that is why, no one can know the real Islam after the Prophet but only by taking the knowledge from Imam Ali (AS). The famous authentic Hadeeth from the Prophet say: I am the city of the knowledge and Ali is it’s gate.( Mustadrak Al-Haakim; Hadeeth number 4693 and 4612 and 4613 and 4614).
The prophets are 124000, while the Rasools (Messengers) are 313 only out of all the prophets. Every messenger is a prophet but no vice versa.
Rasool (messenger) is higher in degree than Nabi, because Nabi gets revelations and teachings from Allah (SWT) to guide him with out a message to convey, while Rasool gets revelations and message to convey to others.
A literal reading of Twelver Shi'a hadith indicates that Allah created and appointed the prophet as a Prophet prior to his existence in this world. So it was not due to activities that he chose to do, such as mysticism, that he became a prophet.
Of course, he had some practices which can be called "mystical" such as spending time alone in the cave of Hira for worship. It is natural that someone who is very close to God would want to choose to do those activities.
My understanding is that the time "before" this world is outside of chronological time, and therefore Allah did this with full knowledge of what was before and after. So therefore Allah knew the Prophet's merits over all people, rather than just only pre-designing him as the Prophet. That is, it is a combination of the individual merit of the Prophet and the creational will of Allah. This was why he was born with 'ismah; otherwise, it might be unfair for Allah to grant some poeple 'ismah and not others. Other people may have different understandings. But in any case it was not solely due to the Prophet "earning" the prophethood through ascetic or mystical practices.
However, some other people, including some people who are not Muslims but who feel the Prophet was close to God, might see it this way and might agree with your view.
Although the fact of the existence of God is very clear for any one who thinks properly, those who need more detailed evidence can read thousands of books written by leading scholars and thinkers. You can read many books on this website al-Islam.org discussing the evidence of God's existence and the prophethood of Muhammad (SAWA).
hundreds of websites which are easily accessible on the internet have hundreds of books on these subjects.
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