The Termination of Prophethood

history as a prophet of God. His name would stand out in the seas of time, like a beacon beckoning people to belief. There would be no difficulty for people in recognizing him as God’s Prophet, believing in him, and winning a share in God’s eternal blessings. There are several traditions according to which the Prophet is reported as saying that his followers would be more numerous than any other prophet. This is another way of making the same point. After Muhammad, there would be no other prophet. Never again would his followers have to choose between belief and disbelief. They would continue to grow in number until the coming of the Last Day. A look at Israelite history will help to illustrate this point. The Jews who lived in the time of Jesus believed in God’s law, as revealed to Moses. Yet when a new prophet— Jesus, the son of Mary—arose amongst them, they denied him. They continued to believe in their historic prophet and refused to believe in the prophet of their day. Seven hundred years later, the Prophet of Arabia was sent to the world. By this time, the number of Christians worldwide had increased considerably. History, however, was to repeat itself. Christians were not prepared to believe in an Ishmaeli rather than an Israeli Prophet. Again they retained their faith in a historically established Prophet—Jesus— but did not believe in a contemporary one—Muhammad. Except for a few Christians who accepted Islam, those who had been believers in Jesus became disbelievers in his successor.