As is the belief taught by the Qur'an, ahadith and all other Islamic texts, the Most Noble creation of Allah, the dear Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) is the last Messenger of Allah. After him, any new claim to Prophethood is a lie. The claimant and all those who believe him/her to be a Prophet are out of the folds of Islam. As the Qur'an informs us,
"Muhammad is not the father of any of your men; yes He is the Messenger of Allah and the last one among all the prophets" (33:40)
This verse is clear in its meaning. Any person who denies the fact that Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) is the final Messenger of Allah is a denier of the Qur'an, hence, a kaafir.
Now that this point is clear, we shall continue. So, our dear Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) is the last Prophet, what does this entail? What does it mean? What are the reasons for this? Why did Allah choose not to send more prophets? There are many reasons for this and just to list these, never mind discuss, will be time consuming.
When I sat down and pondered over the finality of Prophethood, a thought hit me. Allah sent Prophet Adam (peace be upon him) as the father of man and the first Prophet to mankind (but not the first Prophet to be created as discussed in Why is Muhammad also Ahmad). Adam (peace be upon him) made da'wah (invitation) and tabligh to his nation for a very long period of time. Some people accepted his call and some rejected it. That is, some people accepted Tawheed (the oneness of God) and some accepted Shirk (polytheism) or remained as Mushrikeen (polythiests). However, when Adam (peace be upon him) passed away, the majority of those people who had initially accepted Tawheed reverted back to Shirk so Allah sent another Prophet (peace be upon him). This Prophet preached Islam to his nation and similar to Adam (peace be upon him), some accepted his call and some rejected it. But, after he left this world, those who had accepted Islam began to reject it. Other Prophets (peace be upon them) came and a simlar fate followed.
After a due period, Allah sent the Prophet Idrees (peace be upon him) to the people so that the da'wah could continue. He preached Islam as Allah had wished. Some acepted his call and some renounced it. So, by the time Prophet Idrees (peace be upon him) passed away, there were believers but they began to return to their age-old ways of Shirk.
After some time, Allah sent the Prophet Nooh (peace be upon him) to the people. As is found in narrations, he made tabligh to his nation for 950 years. Even after such a long period, some people accepted Tawheed and still there remained many mushrikeen. Thereafter, Allah instructed Prophet Nooh (peace be upon him) to build an ark and carry upon it all the believers as well as one male and one female of every animal because Allah was to destroy the non-believers with a massive flood. Therefore, for some time, there remained only the believers upon the Earth. Prophet Nooh (peace be upon him) passed away and the arrival of Shirk soon followed.
This is why the line of Prophethood continued. Prophet's (peace be upon them) came, delivered their message of Tawheed and then passed away. Their ummah's accepted this message of Islam but as soon as the Messenger made their demise, Shirk crept back in and overtook the ummah. Hence, Allah kept sending His Prophet's unto mankind so that they may help the people of Allah return to monothiesm.
The above named Prophets and Hud, Salih, Ibrahim, Lut, Ismail, Ishaq, Yaqub, Yusuf, Shu'aib, Yunus, Ayub, Musa, Harun, Daud, Sulaiman, Zakaria, Yahya, Ilyas, Dhulkifl, Al-yasa, and Isa all preached the message of Tawheed, but, after their demises, those who had accepted their message then rejected it and returned to Shirk. Not just these Prophets, but, in total 124,000 Prophets were sent to guide humanity and the same fate followed. If Shirk were to remain in the ummah up until the final day, then the line of Prophethood would never end.
Why then did Allah end the line of Prophethood with our darling Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him)? This is a question which can very easily be answered in light of the aforementioned facts. A muttafiq 'alaih naration (one related by both Bukhari and Muslim) informs us that the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) did infact tell his sahaba that his ummah, until the Day of Judgement, will not become indulged in Shirk. The Prophet (peace be upon him) said,
"By Allah, I am not afraid that you will worship others along with Allah, but I am afraid that you will envy and fight one another for worldly fortunes." (Vol 5 : Hadith 411)
To pair this hadith with the concept of finality of Prophethood, we can very clearly see that one of the reasons why Allah ended the line of Prophethood at Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) was because Shirk was no longer going to creep into the ummah and the followers of Sayyidina Rasoolullah (peace be upon him) will never ever commit the grave sin of Shirk.
Therefore, those people who enjoy accusing innocent Muslims of Shirk should take heed and contemplate upon the finality of Prophethood. Allah, the Lord of the Worlds, ended the line of Messengership and made His dearest creation, Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) the final deliverer of revelation because Shirk, the ultimate transgression, was combatted so beautifully by the final Messenger (peace be upon him) that another call to Tawheed was no longer required up until the Day of Judgment. This ummah, unlike ALL previous nations, will NEVER return to Shirk and this is why their is no longer a need for any other Prophet to arise.
For those who like to point fingers at innocent Muslims accusing them of Shirk, there is a dilemma. Do they accept the finality of Prophethood? If so, then they also have to accept that this finality of Prophethood demands that Shirk has also been wiped away from the ummah of Sayyidina Rasoolullah (peace be upon him).
The haq is that which the Ahlus Sunnah wal Jama'ah preaches. We don't deny the Qur'anic order of believing in our dear Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) as the final Prophet and neither do we deny the implication of this belief, that is, that Shirk is not prevalent in this ummah and it never will be.
Allah knows best.
Muhammad Aqdas
