Why prophet Muhammad (pbuh) was the last prophet?
Question:
ASAK,
Muhammad is the last prophet and Quran is the last message. Why is such a scenario better than God sending messengers/prophets or revealing messages every generation?
As a 21st century non-Arab Muslim, a system where I have to be well-verse myself in an alien and past culture, individuals and language in order to know God seems like an unnecessary hurdle to being truly spiritual and religious.
I understand God doesn't talk about the reason of the end of Prophecy when this subject is discussed in Qur'an, I am interested to know your opinion based on your revised understanding of Qur'an.
Answer:
Salam,
Well based on my revised understanding, as you referred to, there are three assumptions in your question that I do not share:
1. The human beings can only be on the right path if they receive a prophet from God or if they follow the message of a prophet that was sent before.
I do not agree with this. I believe sending a prophet or messenger to a particular community was for a very specific purpose. Otherwise all human beings are capable of being on the right path, using their God given gift and revelation of rationality and moral instinct. Please read this: Revising Traditional Assumptions on God's Guidance and Revelation
2. Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) was sent to provide a guidance for all human beings.
I do not agree with this. In my understanding prophet Muhammad (pbuh) was sent primarily to guide the Arabs in Arabia at the time and then of course anyone who identify him/herself as a Muslim (Arab or not) can and should follow the same guidance. Please read this for details: The True Meaning of Universality of the Qur'an
3. A Muslim today needs to familiarise him/herself with a past culture and language in order to be guided as a Muslim.
I do not agree with this. While the above is true for those who want to study Islam in a scholarly level, for the rest of Muslims the message of guidance of the Qur’an is very clear and does not need familiarity with the culture or language.
As for why prophet Muhammad (pbuh) was the last prophet, as you correctly wrote, the reason is not given in the Qur’an. My understanding is that the reason was very simple:
God had promised Ibrahim (pbuh) to provide religious leaders from among his generation (2:124) and Ibrahim (pbuh) in particular asked God to raise a prophet among the generation of Ishmael (2:127-129). According to one interpretation, this promise, or in fact news, about the generation of Ishmael was also revealed to Musa (pbuh), in Torah (Old Testament, Deuteronomy 18:18). (1)
A series of prophets were raised from among the Bani Israel and then the promise for Bani Ishmael was also fulfilled by raising prophet Muhammad (pbuh) among them. Therefore the promise was fulfilled and thus prophet Muhammad (pbuh) was the last prophet.
A potential question might be that why so many prophets for Bani Israel but only one for Bani Ishmael. My answer (which is again based on my opinion because we do not have any explicit answer to this in the Qur’an) is as follows: The many prophets given to Bani Israel also served to establish the concept of monotheism for Bani Ishmael, through the teachings reflected in their stories and by the establishment of Bani Israel as a chosen community. As you see references to these prophets and to the stories of Bani Israel, as a chosen community, are made abundantly in the Qur’an. The prophet (pbuh) in fact followed the same overall path as theirs (2:136; 22:78, 4:26, 3:95, 4:125; 6:161).
So to summarise, prophet Muhammad (pbuh) being the last prophet in my view is simply due to the fact that God’s promises to Ibrahim (pbuh) were fulfilled and completed by his coming.
Note:
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1. I remained cautious by writing ‘according to one interpretation’, because this interpretation of the verse in Torah is expressed by Muslim scholars while the Biblical scholars disagree with it. Just as I do not like a person from another religious community to offer isolated interpretations of the verses of the Qur’an in favour of his beliefs, I also do not allow myself to do this with a book that primarily belongs to another religious community, unless I have first done a thorough research on the main sources of interpretation of that community.
Related Topics:
-------------------
- Why prophet Muhammad (pbuh) was the last prophet (follow up)?
-----------------
Farhad Shafti
November 2017
ASAK,
Muhammad is the last prophet and Quran is the last message. Why is such a scenario better than God sending messengers/prophets or revealing messages every generation?
As a 21st century non-Arab Muslim, a system where I have to be well-verse myself in an alien and past culture, individuals and language in order to know God seems like an unnecessary hurdle to being truly spiritual and religious.
I understand God doesn't talk about the reason of the end of Prophecy when this subject is discussed in Qur'an, I am interested to know your opinion based on your revised understanding of Qur'an.
Answer:
Salam,
Well based on my revised understanding, as you referred to, there are three assumptions in your question that I do not share:
1. The human beings can only be on the right path if they receive a prophet from God or if they follow the message of a prophet that was sent before.
I do not agree with this. I believe sending a prophet or messenger to a particular community was for a very specific purpose. Otherwise all human beings are capable of being on the right path, using their God given gift and revelation of rationality and moral instinct. Please read this: Revising Traditional Assumptions on God's Guidance and Revelation
2. Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) was sent to provide a guidance for all human beings.
I do not agree with this. In my understanding prophet Muhammad (pbuh) was sent primarily to guide the Arabs in Arabia at the time and then of course anyone who identify him/herself as a Muslim (Arab or not) can and should follow the same guidance. Please read this for details: The True Meaning of Universality of the Qur'an
3. A Muslim today needs to familiarise him/herself with a past culture and language in order to be guided as a Muslim.
I do not agree with this. While the above is true for those who want to study Islam in a scholarly level, for the rest of Muslims the message of guidance of the Qur’an is very clear and does not need familiarity with the culture or language.
As for why prophet Muhammad (pbuh) was the last prophet, as you correctly wrote, the reason is not given in the Qur’an. My understanding is that the reason was very simple:
God had promised Ibrahim (pbuh) to provide religious leaders from among his generation (2:124) and Ibrahim (pbuh) in particular asked God to raise a prophet among the generation of Ishmael (2:127-129). According to one interpretation, this promise, or in fact news, about the generation of Ishmael was also revealed to Musa (pbuh), in Torah (Old Testament, Deuteronomy 18:18). (1)
A series of prophets were raised from among the Bani Israel and then the promise for Bani Ishmael was also fulfilled by raising prophet Muhammad (pbuh) among them. Therefore the promise was fulfilled and thus prophet Muhammad (pbuh) was the last prophet.
A potential question might be that why so many prophets for Bani Israel but only one for Bani Ishmael. My answer (which is again based on my opinion because we do not have any explicit answer to this in the Qur’an) is as follows: The many prophets given to Bani Israel also served to establish the concept of monotheism for Bani Ishmael, through the teachings reflected in their stories and by the establishment of Bani Israel as a chosen community. As you see references to these prophets and to the stories of Bani Israel, as a chosen community, are made abundantly in the Qur’an. The prophet (pbuh) in fact followed the same overall path as theirs (2:136; 22:78, 4:26, 3:95, 4:125; 6:161).
So to summarise, prophet Muhammad (pbuh) being the last prophet in my view is simply due to the fact that God’s promises to Ibrahim (pbuh) were fulfilled and completed by his coming.
Note:
-------
1. I remained cautious by writing ‘according to one interpretation’, because this interpretation of the verse in Torah is expressed by Muslim scholars while the Biblical scholars disagree with it. Just as I do not like a person from another religious community to offer isolated interpretations of the verses of the Qur’an in favour of his beliefs, I also do not allow myself to do this with a book that primarily belongs to another religious community, unless I have first done a thorough research on the main sources of interpretation of that community.
Related Topics:
-------------------
- Why prophet Muhammad (pbuh) was the last prophet (follow up)?
-----------------
Farhad Shafti
November 2017
