The Prophet Muhammad A simple Guide to his Life
The Finality of Prophethood
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given them dominion over the disbelievers. It is just
like the kings saying that today “our power has
been consolidated. That is, we are now secure from
our enemies.”
(Tafsir an Nasafi
, 1/ 270)
This verse is an indirect declaration of the finality of
prophethood. A new prophet comes when the
religion brought by the previous prophet is not
preserved in its original form, that is, when the
world is deprived of true guidance from God. Now
when the consolidation of religion has become a
guarantee that no plot or antagonistic move can
distort the original form of God’s religion, then in
this situation there is no need for the arrival of a
new prophet.
In more recent times, some self-styled claimants to
prophethood arose and produced new religions, for
instance Bahaullah (d. 1892) and Mirza Ghulam
Ahmad Qadiani of India (d.1908). The argument
common to all these self-styled prophets was that
since times had changed, humanity had passed
from the traditional age to the scientific age, or from
the handicraft age to the machine age, and therefore
the need had arisen to give man fresh guidance in
