but he is the Messenger of Allāh and the last of the prophets (khātam al-nabiyyīn), and Allāh is ever Knower of all things” (33:40.) The words khātam al-nabiyyīn and khātim al-nabiyyīn mean the last of the prophets, for both the words khātam and khātim mean the last portion of anything (LL.). The best Arabic lexicologists are agreed that khātam al-qaum means the last of a people (TA.). The doctrine of the finality of prophet-hood in Muḥammad, therefore, rests on the clear words of the Holy Qur’ān.

Ḥadīth is even clearer on this point. The meaning of khātam alnabiyyīn was thus explained by the Holy Prophet himself: “My example and the example of the Prophets before me is the example of a man who built a house and he made it very good and very beautiful with the exception of a stone in the corner, so people began to go around it and to wonder at it and to say, Why has not this stone been placed? The Holy Prophet said, I am this stone and I am the last of the prophets” (Bu. 61:18). This ḥadīth, in which the Holy Prophet speaks of himself as the corner-stone of prophethood and the last of the Prophets, is related by Muslim and Tirmidhī as well, and also by Aḥmad in more than ten places. Another report in which the Holy Prophet speaks of himself as the last of the prophets is contained in the following words: “The Israelites were led by prophets; whenever a prophet died, another came after him; surely after me there is no prophet, but there will be successors” (Bu. 60:50). This is also narrated by Muslim and Aḥmad in several places. According to another ḥadīth, the Holy Prophet is reported to have said to ‘Alī, when on the occasion of the Tabūk expedition he left him in Madīnah in his place: “Art thou not pleased that thou shouldst stand to me in the same relation as Aaron stood to Moses except that there is no prophet after me” (Bu. 62:9). Similar reports in which the Holy Prophet made it clear that no prophet would appear after him abound in other books of Ḥadīth.

A prophet for all peoples and all ages

The idea that prophethood came to a close in the person of Holy Prophet Muḥammad is not a stray idea. On the other hand, it is the natural conclusion of the universalization of the theory of revelation which is the basic principle of the religion of Islām. Revelation,