From: hakim@bigq.enet.dec.com (Kamran Hakim)
Subject: The Baha'i perspective on the term `Seal of the Prophets' (2)
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation
Date: Fri, 24 Jul 1992 09:39:31 GMT


The Baha'i view on the meaning of the term "Seal of the Prophets" is
also shared by some of the most prominant Muslim theologians of both
shi'ah and Sunni backgrounds.

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.

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:

"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
Prophet Muhammad. 

Allamih Majlesi in Bahar'ul-Anvar Vol 13, p.323 mentions one of the discourses 
of Imam Ali. In that discourse Ali says:

"I am the Commander of the faithful. I am the King among the pious..... I 
am the Khatam'u-Vasieen and the heir of the prophets and the representative 
of the God of the worlds."

This tradition of Imam Ali is a very interesting. One must be fair in one's
judgment. If we are to take, in this tradition, the term "Khatam" as "the 
Seal", "the ender", "one who completes", then one is obliged to accept 
that Ali was "the seal of the guardians, and successors", after Muhammad, 
Who is the Seal of the prophets. Yet, Shi'ahs believe that after Muhammad 
there was supposed to be twelve Imams, only the first of Whom was Ali. So, 
assuming that the term Khatam in Khatam'u-Vasieen must have a similar 
meaning to the term Khatam in Khatam'u-Nabieen, then one is to question 
why were there more Imams after Ali. How are we to reconcile the existence 
of the other Imams, Who came after Ali, based on this interpretation? 

Regards,

Kamran Hakim