Al-Risala (English), March-April 2000

one in a form more solid than iron or rock. There will not be a single prop on which one can lean. □ Termination of Prophethood T he Arabian Prophet, may God’s peace and blessings descend upon him, was the last of God’s messengers. No other prophet will now come to the world. All of God’s prophets have taught one and the same religion. They spoke different languages, but the religion they expounded was one. Since the followers of previous prophets were unable to preserve the prophetic teachings in their original form, messengers of God used to appear frequently in order to revitalize the true religion, and refresh people’s memories of it. The Prophet Muhammad for his part initiated a revolutionary process which ensured the preservation of religion in its original form and obviated the necessity for other prophets to follow him by preserving the Book of God intact, in its original form. God’s final Prophet imparted to the true religion a stability which it had never had before. His own life was exemplary, as has been reliably recorded. It is noteworthy, too, that the community that developed after the Prophet continued to demonstrate Islamic practices, like prayer in a practicable and imitable form. People of every subsequent age have found this religion exactly as it was when God’s messenger preached it.