Woman's prophecy in theology and Miriam

The women's prophethood is one of the controversial issues in kalām literature to the point that al-Ash'ariyyah and al-Māturīdiyyah which both are the main parts of Ahl al-sunnah have different perspectives. Māturīdīs consider the women's prophethood impossible whereas the great majority of Ash'arīs tend towards the admission of it. A Ẓāhirī scholar, Ibn Ḥazm, too argues in favour of women's prophethood. The controversy is mainly due to some secondary issues such as the nature of prophethood, whether is there any difference between the temrs of nabī and rasūl, and whether the woman could carry out this duty because of some conditions. Miriam is one of the core figures in the controversy because of her appearance in the Qurʾān more then thirty times, some of which display her as a woman received angel from God bringing her revelation and as performed miracles (or other extraordinary things). In this study, first of all, the arguments of the two parties for and against the women's prophethood will be discussed, then the scriptural signs to the prophethood of other prophets will be evaluated, and consequently these will be applied to Miriam to determine whether she is a prophet or not. Keywords: woman, prophecy, Miriam, revelation, miracle.