Universality of Islam
The mission of the Prophet of Islam is universal, it is for all peoples, all places and all times, as the Qur'an says:
And We have not sent you except comprehensively to mankind as a bringer of good tidings and a warner..."(34:28)
And again:
And We have not sent you, [O Muhammad], except as a mercy to the worlds." (21:107)
We see here that his mission and call is to all 'the people' (al-nas):
O Mankind, the Messenger has come to you with the truth from your Lord, so believe; it is better for you." (4:170)
Of course, at the time when he began his mission, it was natural that he first made his admonitions to his own people before warning a people to whom no previous Prophet had been sent:
Or do they say, "He invented it"? Rather, it is the truth from your Lord, [O Muhammad], that you may warn a people to whom no warner has come before you [so] perhaps they will be guided." (32:3)
But this does not mean that he was sent only to a specific group. We occasionally see that the Qur'an, while clearly establishing a particular community as the recipient of the mission, immediately follows this with a statement indicating that all those who receive the message are invited to follow it:
And this Qur'an was revealed to me that I may warn you thereby and whomever it reaches." (6:19)
It is clear that all the Prophets were charged to invite first of all their own people to follow the religion revealed to them, whether the scope of their mission was universal or delimited. In this regard, the Qur'an states:
And We never sent a Messenger save with the language of his folk, that he might make [the message] clear for them." (14:4)
But, as we have said, the fact that the Prophet of lslam was sent with the language of his own people does not mean that his mission was limited to them alone.
Islam, the final religion
With the advent of the Prophet of lslam, the 'scroll' of prophethood and prophecy has received its terminal seal, and the 'book' of prophetic revelation is brought to an end.
The Prophethood of the Prophet of Islam was the Seal (khatam) of Prophethood, just as the divine law he brought placed the seal of finality upon all divine laws, and the Revelation that came through him was the seal of all previous revelations. In other words, after him no more Prophets will arise, and the law established by him will prevail until the Day of Resurrection. That is, there will be no further revealed laws; hence all claims to revealed status for any subsequent Law are null and void.
The question of finality has been clearly expounded in Qur'anic verses and hadiths, and cannot be refuted. We allude to some of these below.
Muhammad is not the father of [any] one of your men, but [he is] the Messenger of Allah and last of the prophets. And ever is Allah, of all things, Knowing." (33:40)
Here, the word for 'seal', khatam, means literally a ring; for at the time of the Revelation, the stamp or sign of individuals was communicated by the carved stone in a ring. They would use these rings to seal their letters, indicating thereby that they had come to the end of the letter. Taking this into account, the import of the verse quoted above becomes clearer: with the advent of the Prophet of lslam, the 'scroll' of prophethood and prophecy has received its terminal seal, and the 'book' of prophetic revelation is brought to an end.
Insofar as the divine message (the risala ) means the disseminating and receiving of messages by means of revelation, it is clear that the end of prophethood also means, ipso facto, the end of the sending [by God] of divine messages. 1
Amongst the various hadiths on this subject, it suffices to note the one referred to as Hadith al-Manzila ('the [Spiritual] Rank'). The Holy Prophet appointed 'Ali as his representative in Medina before leaving for the battle of Tabuk; he said to him:
Are you not happy that your station in regard to me is that of Aaron in regard to Moses, except that there is no Prophet after me?" 2
Apart from this hadith-regarded as mutawatir 3 -many other equally strong hadiths have been recorded on the question of the finality of prophethood with the Prophet of Islam.
The perpetuity of the Islamic Shari'a
The Islamic Shari'a is the most complete plan for securing the natural and spiritual needs of man according to divine guidance. Islam offers a range of comprehensive principles and universal norms capable of responding to the most diverse needs of man.
The mystery of the perpetuity of the Islamic Shari'a is hidden in two things:
First, this Shari'a is the most complete plan for securing the natural and spiritual needs of man according to divine guidance; nothing more complete than Islam can be conceived of.
Second, in the realm of practical rulings, Islam offers a range of comprehensive principles and universal norms capable of responding to the most diverse needs of man. Clear testimony to this is found in the fact that the schools of fiqh (jurisprudence) have been able to respond creatively to the practical legal needs of different Muslim societies over the course of fourteen centuries; and, to this day, no matter has arisen that Islamic fiqh has been incapable of resolving. In this achievement, the following elements have been important and effective:
1. Intellectual self-evidence. In those legal areas where it has competence, intellectual reasoning forms one of the means by which the obligations of man can be deduced throughout his life.
2. Discerning between degrees of importance in cases of conflicting demands. We know that the legal rulings of Islam arise out of a series of existential properties inherent in the nature of things- properties that are either wholesome or corrupting, substantially or accidentally-some of which are grasped by the intellect, others being indicated by revealed law. In cases where conflicting interests arise, the faqih. (jurist) can, by means of exploring these essential properties, resolve the difficulty by giving priority to that which is most important.
3. Keeping open the 'door' of ijtihad. 4 To keep this 'door' of independent reasoning open for the Muslim umma-which is one of the distinguishing and honourable features of Shi'ism- is itself one of the factors which guarantee the finality of the religion of Islam, in that a vibrant and permanent ijtihad is capable of judging and resolving new problems and events, always in accordance with universal Islamic principles.
4. Secondary rulings. In Islamic Shari'a; there are, in addition to its primary rulings, a series of secondary rulings capable of resolving many problems. For example, when the application of a given ruling becomes the source of hardship and injury for some, a principle such as the rule of prohibiting hardship or loss can assist the Shari'a in breaking through apparent dead ends (taking due account of the conditions laid down by fiqh). The Qur'an affirms:
... and He hath not laid upon you in religion any hardship." (22:78)
The Prophet also declared:
[There should be] no injury; and nobody should injure.'
The school which upholds and applies these two principles and their like will never find itself confounded in a juristic dead-end."
Simplicity and comprehensiveness of Islam
The simplicity and the balanced nature of the rulings of Shari'a renders them easy to understand. This feature is one of the most important factors in the penetration and spread of Islam.
One of the special features of the Shari'a is the simplicity and the balanced nature of its rulings, a feature which renders them easy to understand. It might be said that this feature is one of the most important factors in the penetration and spread of Islam among diverse peoples and nations of the world. As regards the worship of God, Islam offers a pure and clear concept of Divine Unity, far removed from all ambiguity or sophistry. The Sura al-Tawhid (also called al-Ikhlas), alone, bears witness to the truth of this assertion:
Say, "He is Allah, [who is] One, Allah, the Eternal Refuge. He neither begat, nor was begotten, Nor is there to Him any equivalent."
Likewise this sacred Book places such emphasis on the principle of piety in its consideration of the spiritual rank and station of man, that it constitutes, in itself, a means of restoring to man all his most noble qualities: the nobility of man being brought to full fruition by his relationship with the divine.
In the area of practical rulings, we see the way in which islam prohibits all forms of hardship and injury; when the application of a given ruling becomes the source of hardship and injury for some, a principle such as the rule of prohibiting hardship or loss can assist the Shari'a in breaking through apparent dead ends (taking due account of the conditions laid down by fiqh). The Qur'an affirms:
... and He hath not laid upon you in religion any hardship." (22:78)
The Prophet also declared:
[There should be] no injury; and nobody should injure."
And he made himself known as one who brings an 'easy' law:
I have come with a law that is easy (sahla) and tolerant (samha)."
Clarity and comprehensiveness of Islamic principles and rulings
Gustav LeBon writes: "The secret of the advance of lslam resides in its extreme simplicity and ease. Islam is free of all those qualities which the healthy mind finds impossible to accept, and which other religions have in abundance. You could not conceive of a religion with simpler principles than those of Islam..."
Impartial and objective scholars-even amongst the non-Muslims-acknowledge that the most important factor in the rapid spread of lslam was the clarity and comprehensiveness of its guiding principles and its rulings. For example, the famous French scholar, Gustav LeBon writes:
The secret of the advance of lslam resides in its extreme simplicity and ease. Islam is free of all those qualities which the healthy mind finds impossible to accept, and which other religions have in abundance. You could not conceive of a religion with simpler principles than those of Islam, which assert: God is One; all men are equal before God; by performing certain religious duties man attains felicity and Paradise, while violation of these duties leads to Hell. The clarity and ease of lslam and its rulings considerably facilitated its progress throughout the world. More important, though, was that strong faith that Islam casts into the hearts of its adherents, a faith to which no doubt can have access. Islam, just as it is the religion most disposed to scientific discovery, is also the greatest of all religions in respect of building upon the foundations of the past, and thereby fostering refinement of the soul and character of men." 5
1. The verses relating to finality are not restricted to what has been cited here; there are six other types of proof-text in the Qur'an on this point. SeeJa'far Sobhani, Mafahim al-Qur'iin, vol. 3, pp. 130-9.
2. al-Bukhari, $ahih,, vol. 3, pp. 54, 58; Muslim b. al-hajaj al-Qushayri, $ahih, (Cairo, n.d.), vol. 2, p. 323 and vol. 4, pp~ 1375, 1871; Shaykh Saduq, Amali (Beirut, 1400/1979) pp. 28, 47, 81; al-Majlisi, Bihar al¬anwar, vol. 37, pp. 254-89; Muhammad b.'Isa al-Tirmidhi, Sunan (Beirut, n.d.) vol. 2, p. 301; Ibn Hisham, Sira, vol. 4, p. 162; Ibn Hanbal, Musnad, vol. 1 , p. 1 7 4.
3. In the science of Hadith, mutawatir signifies the highest degree of authenticity that can be bestowed upon a saying of the Prophet, a saying which is confirmed by multiple chains of transmission.
4. Ijtihiid literally means 'exertion'; in jurisprudence, it refers to the effort made by a jurist through his own reasoning to deduce an appropriate ruling from the primary sources of the Shari 'a, where the ruling is not immediately and incontrovertibly evident from these sources. It is generally held that the 'door' of ijtihad was closed in the 4th/5th century AH for the Sunni schools, but the Shi'i school have always kept the 'door' open.
5. Gustav LeBon, Tamaddun-i islami wa gharb, Persian trans. of Islamic Civilization and the West (Tehran, 1376/1956), pp. 141-3.
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