Muhammad a Prophet For all Humanity
14. The Termination of Prophethood
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prophet. This is another way of making the same
point. After Muhammad, on whom be peace, there
would be no other prophet. Never again would his
followers have to choose between belief and
disbelief. They would continue to grow in number
until the coming of the Last Day.
A look at Israelite history will help to illustrate this
point. The Jews who lived in the time of Jesus
believed in God’s law as revealed to Moses. Yet
when a new prophet—Jesus, the son of Mary—
arose amongst them, they denied him. They
continued to believe in their own historic prophet
and refused to believe in the prophet of their day.
Seven hundred years later, the Prophet of Arabia
was sent to the world. By this time the number of
Christians in the world had increased considerably.
History, however, was to repeat itself. Christians
were not prepared to believe in an Ishmaeli, rather
than an Israeli Prophet. Again they retained their
faith in a historically established Prophet—Jesus—
but did not believe in a contemporary one—
Muhammad. Except for a few Christians who
accepted Islam, those who had been believers in
Jesus became disbelievers in his successor.