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From: hakim@bigq.enet.dec.com
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Subject: On the Meaning of "Muhammad the Seal of the Prophets" (I of VI)
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Date: 4 Dec 89 17:15:09 GMT
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Dear Behnam Sadeghi,

I'd like to apologize to you for the length of these articles. However, the
nature of the question you had raised was such that it required an in-depth
discussion of various Islamic Scriptures and Traditions. I hope that I have
addressed your question to your satisfaction. Let us discuss the question you
had raised. You had mentioned:

>I am confused about some point in the Bahai faith and hope that you
>may be able to clear it up.  

>  I learned from a posting by Mr. (or Ms.?) Mcguire that according
>to the Bahai faith Prophet Mohammad was the messanger of God sent
>for *his time*.  And I suspect that in your faith Bahaullah is
>considered a new prophet.  The past two sentenses-if they are correct-
>are what create the confusion in my mind.
>  If Prophet Mohammad was a messenger of God, then we should accept
>that his statement were true.  He specifically stated that the Quran
>is revealation from God and that is also stated in the Quran itself.
>The Quran, however, calls Mohammad "Khatamon Nabieen" literally means
>"The Seal of the Prophets."  Furthermore, there are quite some narrations
>from Mohammad himself where he says that he is the last prophet.  Es-
>pecially, during his last pilgrimage to Mecca, in front of a huge
>multitude, he declared that he is the last prophet and that no prophet will
>come after him.  So many people witnessed the speech on the Last Pilgrimage
>and reported it that there can not be too much doubt as to its
>authenticity.
>  What I am wondering about is how are the above mentioned facts
>reconciled with the Bahai beliefs mentioned earlier?  The only way
>of reconciling the two that I can think of would be to adopt the
>attitude that Islam has towards the current Christian and Judaist
>scriptures; namely, these books contain some truth but there have been
>corrupted or tempered with through time and consequently they cannot
>be held to be the absolute words of God.  Is this the attitude that the
>Bahai faith adopts towards Islam?

Know my friend that the secret of reconciliation between the traditions you
are thinking of, in supporting the finality of Prophet Muhammad, and the Faith
of Islam, and the teachings of the Baha'i Faith on progressive revelation,
resides in the re-examination of the Muslim Scripture and traditions. 

Baha'is do by no means suggest that the verses of the Holy Qur'an have been
corrupted by the Muslims. Baha'is believe that some of the verses of the Qur'an
have been taken literally by Muslims, and as a result certain understandings of
various theological concepts have evolved throughout the past fourteen centuries
which are not in conformity with other teachings of Muhammad, and those of the
Imams. 

The highly metaphorical nature of the Scripture often becomes a very challenging
issue for the believers to determine the truest meaning behind every verse of
the Qur'an. Remember the well known Tradition, where His Honor Muhammad says:
"We say one word, and by it We mean seventy and two things." There are manifold
meaning associated with each verse of the Qur'an. And an ocean of wisdom is
laid hidden within each one of those meanings. Yet, if one's approach to the
verses of the scripture tends to be literal, and if one's perception of those
verses becomes limited to their words, then one is susceptible to failure in
understanding the inner significance of the metaphors, at the price of the outer
appearance of the sentences. 

One is prone to slip into the pitfall of literalism, when one's faith becomes
founded on imitation and one's religion becomes an inherited necessity in one's
life, rather than an independently investigated reality. Jalalu'ddin-i Rumi'
the renown Persian poet in his book Mathnawi addresses this concept of blind
approach to the Scripture as follows: 

"The Sage of Ghazna (*) told the mystic story 
				   To his veiled hearers, in an allegory:
If those who err see naught in the Qur'an
				   But only words, it's not to wonder on;
Of all the sun's fire, lighting up the sky
				   Only the warmth can reach a blind man's eye."

(*) Referring to another Sufi poet Sana'i.

In the Holy Qur'an 2:24 Muhammad, through the tongue of Revelation says:

"Many will He (i.e. God) mislead by such parables (i.e. metaphors) and many
 guide: but none will He mislead thereby except the wicked..." 

Remember the saying of the Qur'an: 'Have they eyes, but they see not, have they
ears, but they hear not, have they minds but they understand not....'. The state
of the scriptural literalists must be considered within the context of this 
verse.

I'd like to emphasize that I am not, God forbid, saying this in a sarcastic way.
My sole purpose is to point out to a natural pitfall which forms with time in
any religion.

Baha'u'llah addresses the Qur'anic concept of the "Seal of the Prophets", as 
follows:

`Likewise,  in this day, thou hast heard the  people impute  similar charges to
this Revelation (i.e.  referring to the  Revelation of Qa'im), saying: "He hath
compiled these  words from  the words of  old;" or  "these words are spurious."
Vain and haughty are their sayings, low their estate and station. 

After the denials and denunciations which they uttered, (i.e. referring to Jews
and Christians),  they protested  saying: "No independent Prophet, according to
our Scriptures,  should arise after  Moses and Jesus to  abolish the Law of the
Divine Revelation.  Nay, he that is to be made manifest (i.e. the Promised One)
must needs fulfill the Law." Thereupon this verse, indicative of all the divine
themes,  and  testifying  to  the  truth  that  the  flow  of  the grace of the
All-Merciful can never cease, was revealed (i.e. by Muhammad): "And Joseph came
to you  aforetime with clear  tokens, but ye ceased not to doubt of the message
with which He  came to you, until, when He died, ye said, `God will by no means
rise up a Messenger after Him.' Thus God misleadeth him who is the transgressor
the doubter." [Qur'an 40-34] Therefore, understand from this  verse and know of
a certainty that the people in every age, clinging to a verse of the Book, have
uttered such  vain and absurd  sayings, contending that no Prophet should again 
be made manifest  to the world. Even as the Christian divines who, holding fast
to the verses of the Gospel...have sought to explain that the law of the Gospel
shall  at no time  be annulled, and  that no independent Prophet shall again be
made manifest, unless He  confirmeth the Law of the Gospel.  Most of the people
have become afflicted with the same spiritual disease. 

Even as thou  witness how the people of the Qur'an, like unto the people of the
old, have allowed the  word "Seal of the Prophets" to veil their eyes. And yet,
they themselves testify to this verse: "None knoweth the interpretation thereof
but God and they that are well-grounded in knowledge." [Qur'an 3:7]'

						Book of Certitude p. 212-213

							Part I of VI
Regards,

Kamran Hakim
hakim@bigq.dec.com				Tel#508-568-6925