Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!rice!bigq.enet.dec.com!hakim From: hakim@bigq.enet.dec.com Newsgroups: soc.religion.islam Subject: Re: On the Meaning of "Muhammad the Seal of the Prophets" (III of VI) Message-ID: <3389@brazos.Rice.edu> Date: 4 Dec 89 17:15:18 GMT Sender: root@rice.edu Lines: 111 Approved: shari@wpi.edu Continuation from part II: Let us now examine the opinions of various Muslim theologians, from both Shi'ah and Sunni backgrounds, on the meaning of the term Khatam'u-Nabieen.I will first focus on this, from a Shi'ah perspective since, the individual who raised this question is a Shi'ah Muslim, then I will discuss the Sunni view as well as some other views: Mulla Fatth-i-Kashani, who is one of the highly respected Shi'ah scholars, in his commentary on Manhaj-ul-Sadegheen, addresses the concept of Khatam'u-Nabieen as follows: "Muhammad's fear became a reality, after He married Zei'nab. After marriage, the idolaters, and His enemies started criticizing Him, and accusing Him of hypocrisy. They'd say, Muhammad teaches His followers that it is unlawful for a father to marry his son's divorced wife, while He has married Zayd's wife. -Zayd was purchased by Muhammad and freed to live as a free man, and Muhammad had adopted him as His son. Arabs of the time of Jahliah, considered one's adopted son as the real son. This is why they started to accuse Muhammad of hypocrisy.- As a result of this criticism, God revealed to Muhammad, Peace be upon Him!, as reflected in the Su'rih of the Confederates, that, Muhammad is not the father of any man (i.e. any male offsprings) among you (since, no surviving male offsprings remained after He passed away). As a result, the law of not marrying the divorced wife of a son would not apply to Muhammad. Furthermore, God calls Muhammad an Apostle of God, in that same verse, (suggesting that He was the spiritual father of all Arabs, and Zayd was simply an Arab with no blood relationship to Him). Moreover, the verse identifies Muhammad as the seal of the prophets, that is to say, since He did not have any surviving male offsprings to inherit prophethood from Him, thus, prophethood was sealed with Him. That is to say, no prophets shall appear after Him... All of Muhammad's male offsprings died in early childhood, prior to Muhammad's own passing, thus, this verse of the Qur'an came into fulfillment." In the same book [i.e. his commentary on Manhaj-ul-Sadegheen], Mulla Fatth-i- Kashani, offers a tradition attributed to Muhammad, where He says: "I am Muhammad, and I am Ahmad and I am that resurrector, through Whom God shall resurrect His people. And I am the last, after Me there shall be no other prophet." Also, he offers another tradition, in the same book, where, Muhammad the Messenger of God tells Ali, Peace be upon Him!: "If it was allowed that after me there be another prophet, that would have been you, and no one but you." Allamih Jallal-u-Din Soivotti in Jami-ul-Saghir quotes Ayeshih (one of the wives of Prophet Muhammad), who had quoted Muhammad saying: "No prophet shall appear after Me, but Omar-ibn-Khattab." [For the information of the non-Muslim readers, Omar was one of Muhammad's son-in-laws, who agreed to become the 2nd Khalif after Abu-Bakr]. [Clearly, the concept of no Nabi, or prophet, appearing after Muhammad must have been associated with His immediate successorship, and had nothing to do with coming of future Messengers from God. Otherwise, why would Muhammad want to discuss Omar's -the second Khalif's- name in this tradition]. Many of the Shi'ah commentators believe in a literal meaning of the term Khatam- u-Nabieen (Seal of the Prophets, after Whom no other Messengers of God shall come), however, there are other commentators who believe differently: Sheikh Sadoogh, another highly respected Shi'ah scholar/theologian argues in his book, Ekmaal-al-Din vol I: "All the Messengers of God who appeared prior to Muhammad, were succeeded by a Nabi (i.e. a prophet). Adam was a Rasool (Messenger of God), and His successor was Shais the Nabi (Seth the prophet). Noah was a Messenger of God and His successor was Saam the Nabi (Shem the prophet). Abraham, Moses, Jesus and David (peace be upon Them!), were also God's Messengers, Whose successors were Isaac, Jashua, Simon (St. Peter) and Solomon Who were all prophets. However, the successors of Muhammad, Rasool-Allah (the Messenger of God), were not called Nabis (prophets). They were referred to as Imams. Therefore, Ali was not a Nabi, Hasan was not a Nabi, Hossein was not a Nabi, etc...., since, with the Manifestation of Muhammad, the usage of the term Nabi was abandoned (i.e. He was Khatam-u-Nabieen), and ended. As Muhammad was greater than the previous Messengers, so were His appointed successors (i.e. Imams) were greater than Nabis (prophets)." This commentary of Sheikh Sadoogh appears to clearly reason out the inner significance of traditions such as: "Seal of the prophets", "There will be no prophets after me....". Among other Shi'ah sources there is a Hadith (tradition) recorded by Ibn-i-Shahr Ashoob in his book, "Managhib". The very same Hadith can also be found in vol IX of Bahar-ul-Anvar of Allamih Majlesi. This Hadith is from Imam Ali, (Peace be upon Him!), where He discusses the meaning of the term Khatam-u-Nabieen. After describing the ascendancy of His own station, Ali says: "...Anyone who disagrees with me, has disagreed with God, and in arrogance has surpassed all others. No prophet has achieved the station of prophethood except through the Khatam of Nabovvat (i.e. literally meaning prophethood) he received from Muhammad. And Khatam is a ring. Only after receiving the Khatam (ring) of Nabovvat, one can be called a prophet. This is why Muhammad has been called Khatam'u-Nabieen in the Qur'an....." Then He says: "Muhammad is the Seyyed (master) of the Nabieen (prophets), and I am the Seyyed and master of the Vaseein (guardians and successors). Clearly Ali's explanation of Khatam'u-Nabeein is drastically different than the meaning the literalist Muslims have given to it. There does not appear to be any implications whatsoever about cessation of revelation after His Holiness Muhammad. Part III of VI Regards, Kamran Hakim hakim@bigq.dec.com Tel#508-568-6925