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      In   the   name  of   ALLAH,   the    Beneficent,   the    Merciful




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             I N F O R M A T I O N    &   N E W S    N E T W O R K

                      A Subsidiary of Pakistan News Service


 Vol. 4  No. 36-finality     Shaban 16, 1414 Hijri        Friday, Jan. 28 1994
________________________________________________________________________________
 Editor: M. I. Zahid                                    Muslims@Asuacad.Bitnet
________________________________________________________________________________

EDITOR'S NOTE:
        This issue contains the third part of the book, 'The Finality of
Prophethood,' by S. A. A. Maududi. Please see the following issues of IINN
for the first two parts.

 Vol. 4, Issue 32-finality
 Vol. 4, Issue 35-finality

 Information on where to obtain the previous issues of IINN is given at
the end of this file.
--------------------------------------------


                   THE FINALITY OF PROPHETHOOD
                               BY
                      S. ABUL A'LA MAUDUDI

                           PART 3
                           ^^^^^^


                 IS GOD THE ENEMY OF OUR FAITH?

     In the first place, Prophethood is a delicate matter.
According to the Holy Qur'an the idea of Prophethood is such a
fundamental article of faith that one who believes in this idea
is a believer and he who disbelieves is an infidel. If a man does
not put his faith in a prophet, he is an apostate; similarly if
he believes in the claim of an imposter to be a prophet, he
becomes an infidel. In such a delicate and important matter
Omniscient God certainly cannot be expected to have made a slip.
If there were to be a Prophet after the time of Muhammad (PBUH),
God would have made this possibility clear in the Holy Qur'an or
He would have commanded His Apostle Muhammad to make a clear
declaration of it. The Apostle of God would never have passed
away without having forewarned his people that other Apostles
would succeed him and that his followers must put their faith in
the succeeding prophets.
     Had God and His Messenger (PBUH) any intention of
undermining our faith by hiding from us the possibility of
opening the door of Prophethood after the advent of Muhammad
(PBUH) and the coming of a new prophet, thus leaving us in a
quandary that if we did not believe in the ministry of a new
prophet we would apostate from Islam? Further than this, not only
were we kept in the dark by God and His Messenger (PBUH) about
all this, but, on the contrary, they made observations and
affirmations which the Ummah for the last thirteen [now fourteen]
hundred years has taken to mean and even today holds the view
that no prophet will come after Muhammad (PBUH). Could God and
His Messenger really temper with our faith? Supposing for a
moment that admittance to the office of Prophethood is open and a
new Prophet does appear, we shall refuse him without fear. For
this refutation, God might call us to account on the Day of
Judgement; but we shall place the whole record of His own
affirmations and injunctions before Him and this evidence will
prove that (God-forbid) Allah's Book and the Sunnah of His
Messenger had led us to disbelieve the new prophet and had thus
condemned us to be infidels. We have no fear that after
considering this record God Almighty will consider it fit to
punish us for blasphemy against the new Prophet. But if the door
of Prophethood is in fact closed and no Prophet will arise after
Muhammad (PBUH), and despite this fact a person puts his faith in
the claim of a new prophet, that person should think well indeed
as to what record can be presented before God in his defense to
avoid the punishment for blasphemy and to achieve salvation? Such
a man should look through the material of his defense before he
is produced in the August Court of the Almighty. He should
compare this material with the record that we have presented and
then judge for himself if the material upon which he is relying
for his defense is worth the trust of a reasonable man and can he
court the risk of facing the charge of blasphemy and be punished
for it with the kind of defense that he has at his disposal?



                    DO WE NEED A PROPHET NOW?

     The second point which requires consideration is that
Prophethood is not a quality to be acquired by any person who
proves himself worthy of it by devoting himself to prayers and
righteous deeds. Nor is it anything like a reward given in
recognition of good service. Prophethood is an office and Allah
appoints some person to this office to fulfill a special need.
When such a need arises, God appoints a Prophet to fulfill it.
Allah does not send prophets in rapid succession when there is no
need or when the need has been fulfilled. When we refer to the
Quran in order to find out conditions when the Prophets were
appointed by Allah, we come to know that there are only four
conditions under which the Prophets have been sent unto the
world.
     Firstly there was need for a prophet to be sent unto a
certain nation to which no prophet had been sent before and the
message brought by the Prophet of another nation could not have
reached these people.
     Secondly, there was need for appointing a prophet because
the message of an earlier Prophet had been forgotten by the
people, or the teachings of the former prophets had been
adulterated and hence it had become impossible to follow the
message brought by that Prophet.
     Thirdly, the people had not received complete mandate of
Allah through a former prophet. Hence succeeding prophets were
sent to fulfill the task of completing the religion of Allah.
     Fourthly, there was need for a second prophet to share the
responsibility of office with the first prophet.
     It is obvious that none of the above needs remains to be
fulfilled after the advent of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).
     The Holy Quran says that Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) has been
sent as a bearer of instructions for the whole mankind. The
cultural history of the world bears testimony to the fact that
since the advent of the Holy Prophet (PBUH) up to the present
time such conditions have always prevailed in the world which
were conducive to transmitting his message to all nations at all
times. It follows, therefore, that different nations no longer
need different prophets after the time of the Holy Prophet
(PBUH). The Holy Quran and the records of Hadith and the
biographical details of the life of Muhammad (PBUH) stand witness
to the fact that the Divine message brought into this world by
the Holy Prophet is extant in its original and pure form. The
Prophet's message has suffered no process of distortion or
falsification. Not a single word has been added to or expunged
from the Holy Book which the Prophet (PBUH) brought unto the
world from Almighty Allah, nor can anyone make additions to or
delete anything from it till the Day of Resurrection.
     The message which the Holy Prophet (PBUH) conveyed by word
and action has been transmitted to us in such comprehensive, pure
and original form that we feel as if we were living in the
environment and period of the Holy Prophet (PBUH).
     In this way the second condition under which prophets are
sent unto the world has also been fulfilled.
     Thirdly the Holy Qur'an clearly affirms that God has finally
completed His Divine Mission through the agency of Prophet
Muhammad (PBUH). Hence there is no room for a new prophet to
carry the divine mission to completion.
     As regards the fourth condition, if a partner were really
needed he would have been appointed in the time of Prophet
Muhammad (PBUH) to share the burden of his ministry. Since no co-
prophet was appointed, this condition also stands fulfilled.
     We should, therefore, look around for a fifth condition
under which a new prophet might be needed after Muhammad (PBUH).
If a man argues that people have fallen into depravity, hence
there is need for a new prophet to reform the degenerate people,
we shall ask him: when did a prophet ever come to introduce
reforms only that we should need one now to carry out the work of
reformation? A prophet is appointed so that he may be the
recipient of Divine revelation and Divine revelations are made
with express purpose of transmitting a new message or to correct
the wrongs that have crept into an earlier religion.
     When the Holy Qur'an and the Sunnah of the Holy Prophet
(PBUH) have been preserved in their original and comprehensive
form and when the Divine mission has been completed by Muhammad
(PBUH), all possible need for the transmission of Divine
revelations have now been fulfilled and there is further need
only of reformers to cleanse the evils of mankind, but there is
no room for the prophets.

                  A NEW PROPHETHOOD IS A CURSE
              RATHER THAN A BLESSING FOR THE UMMAH

     The third point which needs consideration is that whenever a
prophet is sent unto a certain people the question of faith and
infidelity invariably arises among these people. The faithful
form one Ummah and the disbelievers automatically form different
community. The difference that keeps these two communities apart
is not peripheral or superficial but a basic and fundamental
difference of belief or disbelief in a prophet; and those two
communities can never merge with each other unless people of one
side decide to surrender their faith.
     In addition, these two Ummahs obtain guidance and derive
their law from two different sources. One sect follows the law
emanating from the Divine message and Sunnah of the Prophet they
believe in; the other community is fundamentally opposed to the
idea of this Prophet being the law-giver. On this basis, it
becomes an impossibility for these two sections to join in a
unified and cohesive society. It will be perfectly clear to a man
who keeps the above facts in view that the Finality of
Prophethood is a great blessing from Allah for the people of
Islam. It is due to this that the Ummah has been able to form a
permanent universal brotherhood.
     The belief in the finality of Prophethood has secured Muslim
society from the danger of any fundamental dissension which might
result in permanent division in its ranks. Now every man who
accepts Muhammad (PBUH) as a divinely appointed Guide and Leader
and also is not inclined to seek instruction from any other
source except the Divine message of the Holy Prophet (PBUH) is a
member of the brotherhood of Islam and on this basis, can join
this brotherhood at any time.
     If the office of Prophethood had not been sealed once and
for all after Muhammad (PBUH), the people of Islam could never
have forged a cohesive society; for every new prophet would have
shattered the unity of the Ummah.
     A reasonable man after a little deliberation will come to
the conclusion that when a prophet has been sent to the whole
mankind (not just to a certain group or nation), and when the
Divine message has been completely transmitted through this
Prophet and further when the teachings of the Prophet have been
fully preserved, the office of prophethood should be sealed after
him in order that the whole world may unite in allegiance to this
Prophet and form one brotherhood of the faithful. Only in this
way can universal brotherhood of Islam be secured against
needless dissensions which might have repeatedly erupted on the
appearance of every successive prophet.
     A prophet may be a shadow or a buruzi prophet; or "a prophet
who is law-giver and the bearer of a Divine book." The appearance
of anyone of the above God-appointed prophets will invariably
have the social consequence of his followers forming one Ummah
and his detractors being condemned as infidels and hence outside
the pale of Islam. This division of mankind is unavoidable when
the need for a prophet is inevitable. But in the absence of such
a need, it is utterly impossible to expect that Allah in His
Wisdom and Beneficence will needlessly cause strife among His
creatures on the question of faith and disbelief, thus for ever
preventing His creatures to form one Ummah.
     Hence what is confirmed by the Qur'an and what is clearly
affirmed to be true by the Sunnah and the consensus of the Ummah,
is also corroborated by reason.
     Reason demands that the office of prophethood should remain
sealed hereafter for all time to come.


[TO BE CONTINUED]

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