بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
والصلاة والسلام على خاتم النبيين
Yohanan Friedmann, an Israeli scholar of Islamic studies, said:
some traditionists even maintain that a person who does not believe that Muhammad was the last prophet is not a believer even if he does acknowledge Muhammad’s prophethood in general terms. One should, however, bear in mind that symbolizing the completion of some activity is only one meaning pertaining to the concept of “sealing”. Sealing may also be a guarantee of authenticity and approbation, or a device to prevent the opening of a receptacle without the knowledge of its owner. Khâtam also means an ornamental ring. And while it is true that the phrase khâtam al-nabiyyîn 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’ânic phrase is not the only possible one and had not necessarily been the earliest...we have at our disposal a number of indications to the effect that the phrase khâtam al-nabiyyîn was not always interpreted in a way compatible with the orthodox dogma. A verse included in the Dîwân of Umayya b. Abî al-Salt speaks of the Prophet as a person “by means of whom God sealed the prophets before him and after him” (bihi khatama ‘llâhu man qablahu / wa man ba’dahu min nabiyyin khatam). This verse assumes the appearance of prophets after the death of Muhammad and the verb khatama used in it cannot mean that he was the last prophet. One is tempted to consider the possibility that it means here: “he stamped upon them his seal (of approval?)”. From the traditional Muslim point of view this meaning is unobjectionable with regard to Muhammad’s predecessors in the prophetic office: the idea that Muhammad came to confirm the former prophets is attested to in the Qur’ân. However, its application to prophets who will follow Muhammad seems to indicate that the belief in the finality of Muhammad’s prophethood was not generally accepted in the early days of Islâm. (Finality of Prophethood in Sunni Islam, pp. 183-185)
The verse of the poet Umayya b. Abi Salt is quoted below:
به خَتَم اللهُ مَن قبلَه وما بعده من نبيّ خُتِم
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Wilferd Madelung says: “The argument rests, however, on a fancifully wide interpretation of the term 'Seal of the Prophets'. For even if its meaning in the Qur'an is accepted to be the 'last of the prophets', which is itself not entirely certain” (The Succession to Muhammad: A Study of the Early Caliphate, p.17)
ReplyDeleteUri Rubin says: “Nevertheless, the idea that Muḥammad is khātam al-nabiyyīn is in-voked only once in the Qurʾān, and not necessarily to state that he is the last prophet.” (The Seal of the Prophets and the Finality of Prophecy. Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft, Vol. 164, No. 1 (2014), p.96)
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