Wilson ...

Wilson : Does the Qur'an offer any information about the future of the prophethood in general? Chirri : The declaration which states the finality of the is a clear information about the future of prophethood: “Muhammad is not a father of any of your men, but he is the Messenger of God and the 'Khatam' of the prophets, and God is Ever-Knower of all things.” 33:40 The word Khatam, as advanced, means the seal which closes a container or the seal whose imprint confirms the authenticity of certain contents of a written document or a message.

Sealing for closure or for confirmation comes at the end of what it closes or confirms. The said to his cousin Ali: “Thy position from me compares to the position of Aaron from Moses, but there will be no prophet after me.” To declare that Muhammad is the final of the prophets is, actually, an information about the very far future of the prophethood.

It informs that the world shall not witness a prophet after the death of Muhammad, and that God will not send any messenger to mankind, subsequent to him. Thus the long history of the prophethood will come to a close by the death of Muhammad. This is a prophecy in an entirely unexpected direction. We should expect God to continue sending His prophets to mankind. He sent many prophets before Muhammad, and we normally expect Him to continue doing so after the death of the .

The human generations, before Muhammad, were not more entitled to heavenly messages than the generations subsequent to him. As a matter of fact, Materialism in the modern age is much greater than it was before Muhammad; therefore, a spiritual revelation would be much more needed than ever before. The complexity of the causes in this area is entirely beyond the human knowledge. No human being is able to know how God determines to send a prophet to mankind.

The knowledge of this is exclusive only to God. Wilson : An impressive prophecy usually deals with some specific event that may take place at a certain time. The information which the verse contains does not deal with a specific event that will take place at a particular time. It does not tell us of something that will happen. It is a negative information, telling us that no prophet will come after Muhammad. Chirri : To give a positive information is much easier than to give a negative one.

Let us illustrate that by an example of information that deals with the past rather than the future: It is much easier to say that Mr.