HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Seal of the Prophets ( ar, خاتم النبيين, translit=khātam an-nabīyīn or khātim an-nabīyīn; or ar, خاتم الأنبياء, translit=khātam al-anbiyā’ or khātim al-anbiyā), is a title used in the
Qur'an The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God. It is organized in 114 chapters (pl.: , si ...
and by
Muslims Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...
to designate the Islamic prophet
Muhammad Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد;  570 – 8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet divinely inspired to preach and confirm the mon ...
as the last of the prophets sent by God. The title is applied to Muhammad in verse 33:40 of the Qur'an, with the popular Yusuf Ali translation reading:


Term variations

There is a difference among the schools of Qur'anic recitation regarding the reading of the word خاتم in verse 33:40 – it can be read as either ''khātim'' or ''khātam''. Of the ten '' qirā’āt'' (readings, methods of recitation) regarded as authentic – seven '' ''mutawātir'''' and three ''mashhūr'' – all read خاتم in this verse with a '' kasrah'' on the ''
tāʼ Taw, tav, or taf is the twenty-second and last letter of the Semitic abjads, including Phoenician Tāw , Hebrew Tav , Aramaic Taw , Syriac Taw ܬ, and Arabic ت Tāʼ (22nd in abjadi order, 3rd in modern order). In Arabic, it is also ...
'' (خاتِم, ''khātim'') with the exception of 'Asim, who reads with a '' fatḥah'' on the ''tāʼ'' (خاتَم, ''khātam''). The reading of al-Hasan, a ''shadhdh'' (aberrant) recitation, is also ''khātam''. The recitation that has become prevalent in most of the world today is Hafs 'an 'Asim – that is, the ''qirā’ah'' of 'Asim in the ''riwāyah'' (transmission) of his student Hafs.


Hadith


Final brick metaphor

In a well-known hadith reported by Abu Hurayrah, Jabir ibn Abd Allah, Ubayy ibn Ka'b, and Abu Sa‘id al-Khudri, and recorded by al-Bukhari, Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj, al-Tirmidhi, Ahmad ibn Hanbal,
al-Nasa'i Al-Nasāʾī (214 – 303 AH; 829 – 915 CE), full name Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Aḥmad ibn Shuʿayb ibn ʿAlī ibn Sīnān al-Nasāʾī, (variant: Abu Abdel-rahman Ahmed ibn Shua'ib ibn Ali ibn Sinan ibn Bahr ibn Dinar Al-Khurasani ...
, and others, Muhammad compared the relationship between himself and the previous prophets to a building missing a single brick.الشواهد
(Corroborating narrations for this hadith). Islamweb.com.
In '' Sahih al-Bukhari'' it is reported by Abu Hurayrah that Muhammad said, "My similitude in comparison with the prophets before me is that of a man who has built a house nicely and beautifully, except for a place of one brick in a corner. The people go about it and wonder at its beauty, but say: 'Would that this brick be put in its place!' So I am that brick, and I am the seal of the prophets" (fa’anā ’l-labinah, wa anā khātamu ’n-nabīyīn). This hadith is narrated with similar wording in ''
Sahih Muslim Sahih Muslim ( ar, صحيح مسلم, translit=Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim), group=note is a 9th-century '' hadith'' collection and a book of '' sunnah'' compiled by the Persian scholar Muslim ibn al-Ḥajjāj (815–875). It is one of the most valued b ...
'', '' Musnad Ahmad ibn Hanbal'', ''
as-Sunan al-Kubra ''As-Sunan al-Kubra'', ( ar, سنن الكبرى), is a hadith book collected by Imam Al-Nasa'i (214 – 303 AH), not to be confused with the same titled book by Imam Al-Bayhaqi. Description As-Sunan al-Kubra is the larger collection of the Su ...
'' of al-Nasa'i, and '' Sahih Ibn Hibban''. In ''Mu'jam al-Awsat'', al-Tabarani narrated a variant wording of the hadith with the last statement being, "So I am that
rick Rick may refer to: People *Rick (given name), a list of people with the given name * Alan Rick (born 1976), Brazilian politician, journalist, pastor and television personality *Johannes Rick (1869–1946), Austrian-born Brazilian priest and myco ...
I am the seal of the prophets, there is no prophet after me" (''fa’anā dhālika, anā khātamu ’n-nabīyīn, lā nabīya ba‘dī''). Ibn Hibban also has a variant ending with "I was the place of that brick, with me the
ine of INE, Ine or ine may refer to: Institutions * Institut für Nukleare Entsorgung, a German nuclear research center * Instituto Nacional de Estadística (disambiguation) * Instituto Nacional de Estatística (disambiguation) * Instituto Nacional E ...
messengers is sealed" (''fakuntu anā mawḍi‘u tilka ’l-labinah, khutima biya ’r-rusul''). In ''Sahih Muslim'' and ''Musnad Ahmad'' the hadith is also reported by Jabir ibn Abd Allah, with the last statement being "So I am the place of that brick, I have come and sealed the
ine of INE, Ine or ine may refer to: Institutions * Institut für Nukleare Entsorgung, a German nuclear research center * Instituto Nacional de Estadística (disambiguation) * Instituto Nacional de Estatística (disambiguation) * Instituto Nacional E ...
prophets" (fa’anā mawḍi‘u ’l-labinah, ji’tu fakhatamtu ’l-anbiyā’).
Abu Dawud al-Tayalisi Abu or ABU may refer to: Places * Abu (volcano), a volcano on the island of Honshū in Japan * Abu, Yamaguchi, a town in Japan * Ahmadu Bello University, a university located in Zaria, Nigeria * Atlantic Baptist University, a Christian university ...
in his '' Musnad'' has from Jabir, "So I am the place of that brick, with me the
ine of INE, Ine or ine may refer to: Institutions * Institut für Nukleare Entsorgung, a German nuclear research center * Instituto Nacional de Estadística (disambiguation) * Instituto Nacional de Estatística (disambiguation) * Instituto Nacional E ...
prophets is sealed" (''fa’anā mawḍi‘u ’l-labinah, khutima biya ’l-anbiyā’'').


Other hadith

In another hadith, Muhammad prophesied the appearance of a number of false prophets before the day of judgement, while asserting his status as the seal of the prophets. It is reported by Thawban ibn Kaidad that Muhammad said, "The Hour will not be established until tribes of my '' ummah'' (community) unite with the idolaters, and until they worship idols. And in my ''ummah'' there will be thirty liars, each of whom will claim to be a prophet, (but) I am the seal of the prophets, there is no prophet after me." Hudhayfah ibn al-Yaman reports that Muhammad said, "In my ''ummah'' there will be twenty-seven liars and ''dajjals'', among whom are four women, (but) I am the seal of the prophets, there is no prophet after me".


Classical lexicons

According to the authoritative dictionary '' Lisan al-Arab'' of Ibn Manzur, According to ''Taj al-Arus'' of al-Zabidi, Further,


Traditional interpretation

The title is generally regarded by Muslims as meaning that Muhammad is the last in the series of prophets beginning with
Adam Adam; el, Ἀδάμ, Adám; la, Adam is the name given in Genesis 1-5 to the first human. Beyond its use as the name of the first man, ''adam'' is also used in the Bible as a pronoun, individually as "a human" and in a collective sense as " ...
. The belief that a new prophet cannot arise after Muhammad is shared by both
Sunni Sunni Islam () is the largest branch of Islam, followed by 85–90% of the world's Muslims. Its name comes from the word '' Sunnah'', referring to the tradition of Muhammad. The differences between Sunni and Shia Muslims arose from a dis ...
and Shi'a Muslims. Some of the most prominent historical Sunni texts on creed (''
aqidah ''Aqidah'' ( (), plural ''ʿaqāʾid'', also rendered ''ʿaqīda'', ''aqeeda'', etc.) is an Islamic term of Arabic origin that literally means " creed". It is also called Islamic creed and Islamic theology. ''Aqidah'' go beyond concise sta ...
'') explicitly mention the doctrine of finality of prophethood. For example, in '' al-Aqidah at-Tahawiyyah'' it is asserted that "Every claim to the prophetic office after his is a delusion and a wandering desire." In another popular work, '' al-Aqidah an-Nasafiyyah'', it is stated, "The first of the prophets is Adam and the last is Muhammad."


Academic views

Hartwig Hirschfeld doubted the authenticity of the verse 33:40 and claimed it to be of late origin. Yohanan Friedmann states that Hirschfeld's arguments "that the title ''khatam an-nabiyyin'' is unusual, that it only appears once in the Qur'an, that the word ''khatam'' is not Arabic…do not seem valid arguments against the authenticity of the verse." Frants Buhl accepted the traditional meaning of last prophet. Josef Horovitz suggested two possible interpretations of ''khatam an-nabiyyin'': the last prophet or the one who confirms the authenticity of the previous prophets. Heinrich Speyer agreed with Horovitz. According to Alford T. Welch, the traditional Muslim belief that Muhammad is "last and greatest of the prophets" is most likely based on a later interpretation of 33:40. The first modern academic to have studied in detail the history of the doctrine of finality of prophethood is Yohanan Friedmann. In his seminal article, ''Finality of Prophethood in Sunni Islam'' (1986), he concluded that although the notion of finality of prophethood "eventually acquired an undisputed and central place in the religious thought of Islam," it was contested during the first century AH. He states, "While it is true that the phrase ''khatam an-nabiyyin'' is generally interpreted as meaning 'the last prophet', the exegetical tradition and other branches of classical Arabic literature preserved material which indicates that this now generally received understanding of the Qur'anic phrase is not the only possible one and had not necessarily been the earliest." Due to this Friedmann states that the meaning of ''khatam an-nabiyyin'' in its original Qur'anic context is still in doubt. Wilferd Madelung takes Friedmann's findings into consideration in observing that the original Qur'anic meaning of the term is not entirely certain. However, in a more recent paper he states, "Most Muslims at the time no doubt understood it to mean that he was to be the last prophet and Islam was the final religion, as Muslims have commonly understood it ever since." An edited version of an article that originally appeared in the ''Proceedings of the 25th Congress of L’Union Européenne des Arabisants et Islamisants'' in 2013. Carl W. Ernst considers the phrase to mean that Muhammad's "imprint on history is as final as a
wax seal A seal is a device for making an impression in wax, clay, paper, or some other medium, including an embossment on paper, and is also the impression thus made. The original purpose was to authenticate a document, or to prevent interference with ...
on a letter." David Powers, also making use of Friedmann's research, believes that the early Muslim community was divided over the meaning of the expression, with some understanding it to mean he fulfilled or confirmed the earlier Christian and Jewish revelations, while others understood it as signifying that Muhammad brought the office of prophethood to a close. He suggests that the Qur'anic text underwent a series of secondary omissions and additions which were designed to adapt the text to the dogma of finality of prophethood, and that the idea of finality only became the prevailing interpretation (alongside the notion of confirmation or fulfilment) by the end of the 1st century AH / 7th century. In a review of Powers' book,
Gerald Hawting Gerald R. Hawting (born 1944) is a British historian and Islamicist. Life Hawting's teachers were Bernard Lewis and John Wansbrough. He received his Ph.D. in 1978. He is Emeritus Professor for the History of the Near and Middle East at the Sc ...
goes further, suggesting that the development of the doctrine was not complete before the 3rd century AH / 9th century. Madelung comments that Power's argument, that verses 36–40 are a later addition dating from the generation after Muhammad's death, is "hardly sustainable." Uri Rubin holds that the finality of prophethood is a Qur'anic idea, not a post-Qur'anic one, and that the expression ''khatam an-nabiyyin'' implies both finality of prophethood and confirmation. In response to Powers and other modern scholars sceptical of the early origin of the doctrine, Rubin concludes from his study "that, at least as far as Sura 33 is concerned, the consonantal structure of the Qur'anic text has not been tampered with, and that the idea of finality of prophethood is well-represented in the text, as well as in the earliest available extra-Quranic materials." Rubin reexamines the early extra-Qur'anic texts cited by Friedmann and other modern scholars, and concludes that rather than indicating that the notion of finality of prophethood is late, the texts confirm the early origin of the belief. He concludes that "there is no compelling reason to assume that the Muslims of the first Islamic century originally understood the Qur'anic ''khatam an-nabiyyin'' in the sense of confirmation alone, without that of finality."


Official mandates

In Pakistan voters before voting and leaders before assuming their offices have to declare in writing and take an oath of finality of prophethood, (i.e. Khatm-i-Nabuwat); any one not subscribing is considered claiming otherwise and a non-Muslim and may face persecution and loss of opportunities. Quranic verses and Ahadith pertaining to the finality of prophethood have to be displayed prominently in Government offices, and at entrances to districts along highways. On 22 June 2020, the
Government of Pakistan The Government of Pakistan ( ur, , translit=hakúmat-e pákistán) abbreviated as GoP, is a federal government established by the Constitution of Pakistan as a constituted governing authority of the four provinces, two autonomous territorie ...
made it mandatory that term () be added to the name of Islamic prophet
Muhammad Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد;  570 – 8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet divinely inspired to preach and confirm the mon ...
in textbooks and official documents where previously it was passed on 15 June in the Sindh Assembly. In October 2021
Punjab, Pakistan Punjab (; , ) is one of the four provinces of Pakistan. Located in central-eastern region of the country, Punjab is the second-largest province of Pakistan by land area and the largest province by population. It shares land borders with the ...
provincial assembly recommended inclusion of oath of Khatm-i-Nabuwat in the Nikah (marriage) documents. Similarly, the Khatumo administration based in Buuhoodle and centred on the Sool, central Sanaag and Ayn regions of northern Somalia, claims its title is derived from the Quranic injunction of Khatam an-Nabiyyin.


Ahmadiyya interpretation

The
Ahmadiyya Community Ahmadiyya (, ), officially the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community or the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama'at (AMJ, ar, الجماعة الإسلامية الأحمدية, al-Jamāʿah al-Islāmīyah al-Aḥmadīyah; ur, , translit=Jamā'at Aḥmadiyyah Musl ...
believe that Muhammad brought prophethood to perfection and was the last prophet to have brought a complete and comprehensive universal law for humanity, but prophethood subordinate to Muhammad is still open. New prophets may be born, but they must be seen as subordinate to Muhammad and cannot create any new law or religion.
Mirza Ghulam Ahmad Mirzā Ghulām Ahmad (13 February 1835 – 26 May 1908) was an Indian religious leader and the founder of the Ahmadiyya movement in Islam. He claimed to have been divinely appointed as the promised Messiah and Mahdi—which is the metapho ...
, who founded the movement in Qadian,
India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...
in 1889, is believed to be the promised
Messiah In Abrahamic religions, a messiah or messias (; , ; , ; ) is a saviour or liberator of a group of people. The concepts of '' mashiach'', messianism, and of a Messianic Age originated in Judaism, and in the Hebrew Bible, in which a ''mashiach ...
and
Mahdi The Mahdi ( ar, ٱلْمَهْدِيّ, al-Mahdī, lit=the Guided) is a messianic figure in Islamic eschatology who is believed to appear at the end of times to rid the world of evil and injustice. He is said to be a descendant of Muhammad w ...
. He claimed a kind of prophethood, believed he had been divinely appointed to revive and universally establish Islam, but not to have add to or change the laws of God or Muhammad.The Question of Finality of Prophethood
The Promised Mehdi and Messiha, by Dr. Aziz Ahmad Chaudhry, Islam International Publications Limited
This has caused controversy between Ahmadis and more mainstream Muslims, who accuse them of denying the finality of prophethood. Ahmadiyya Muslims are subjected to considerable persecution for their beliefs.


Baháʼí Faith view

The
Baháʼí Faith The Baháʼí Faith is a religion founded in the 19th century that teaches the essential worth of all religions and the unity of all people. Established by Baháʼu'lláh in the 19th century, it initially developed in Iran and parts of the ...
regards Muhammad as a Manifestation of God and as the Seal of the Prophets, but does not believe Revelation or Scripture from God has ended. In particular, Baháʼís regard the end-times prophecies of
Islam Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God (or '' Allah'') as it was revealed to Muhammad, the ...
(and other faiths) as being both metaphorical and literal, and see the
Báb The Báb (b. ʿAlí Muḥammad; 20 October 1819 – 9 July 1850), was the messianic founder of Bábism, and one of the central figures of the Baháʼí Faith. He was a merchant from Shiraz in Qajar Iran who, in 1844 at the age of 25, claimed ...
and Bahá'u'lláh as fulfilling these prophetic expectations. The latter of these is the founder of the Baháʼí religion, which considers Islamic law as secondary or tertiary to its own. Muhammad is seen as ending the '' Adamic cycle'', also known as the ''Prophetic cycle'', which is stated by Bahá'is to have begun approximately 6,000 years ago, and the Báb and Bahá'u'lláh as starting the ''Baháʼí cycle'', or ''Cycle of Fulfilment'', which will last at least five hundred thousand years with numerous Manifestations of God appearing throughout this time. Moreover, Mirza Husayn 'Ali Nuri Bahá'u'lláh gave the Title "King of the Messengers" (''sultán al-rusul'') to the Báb, and the "Sender of the Messengers" (''mursil al-rusul'') to himself. Additionally, the
Kitáb-i-Íqán The ''Kitáb al-Íqán or Kitáb-i-Íqán'' ( fa, كتاب ايقان, ar, كتاب الإيقان "Book of Certitude") is one of many books held sacred by followers of the Baháʼí Faith; it is their primary theological work. One Baháʼí sc ...
shows the Islamic concept of the oneness of the prophets and the Hadith, "knowledge is a single point, which the foolish have multiplied," to reveal that the term "Seal of the Prophets", like Alpha and Omega, apply to all the prophets: "Whilst established upon the seat of the 'first', they occupy the throne of the 'last'." In summary, these interpretive and legal differences have caused the Bahá'ís to be seen as heretics and apostates by some Muslims, which has led to their persecution in different countries.


References


External links

* {{Wikiquote inline Quranic words and phrases Titles of Muhammad