Muhammad - The Last Prophet?
The question in terms of modern reform
Should one Google the terms "muhammad last prophet," the result is pretty clear. Some links and their information:
At a site called The Way to Truth, a list of links pertaining to the Prophet Muhammad bears the title, "The Life of the Last Prophet: Prophet Muhammad."
At this point the theme should be obvious: Is Muhammad the last Prophet?
From Armstrong's Islam - A Short History:
Rightly or wrongly, Westerners observing Islam get a fairly clear sense that "reform" of Islam is nearly impossible inasmuch as re-examining Quranic values in the modern context is perceived as challenging the authority of God's prophet. Those who acknowledge the humanity and human-family relations we share with our Muslim neighbors are often left scratching our heads: As much as we might wish people to live in peace, conflict seems inevitable unless there is a certain amount of give and take on both sides. The West, we know, seems inflexible in its drive to define everything terms of economy and what profits "us" the most. It is a disappointing assessment of Western perspicacity to say that folks on this side of the gap have a hard time understanding what is wrong with that.
However, the assertion that Muhammad is the last Prophet may be equally problematic. Much as fundamentalist Christians hold Jesus' words in the Bible as fixed, static, and literal--as if Jesus had no inner vision--so do many Muslims seem to hold their interpretations of the Quran as definitive, static, and given by the Last Prophet himself.
I admit I feel safe in raising Armstrong as a counterpoint; she is an honorary member of the Association of Muslim Social Sciences (in addition to being a former Catholic nun who teaches at a Rabbinical school) and recently was honored by the Islamic Center of Southern California as a "bridge builder". Christians, in the past, have mailed her excrement in protest of her books; and while no word has come up that she is similarly antagonized by Muslims, it would be foolish to imagine that she has satisfied all Muslims everywhere.
Thus a simple comparison:
• Muhammad is the last Prophet.
• Says who? This assertion is not in the Quran.
It's hard to explain the difference in a Christian comparison: There is a living faith of Christianity which seeks to find Christ's way in changing times, and there is a dead faith of Christianity which wishes for the simpler days when computers and medicines and information did not present alternatives to religious faith in terms of life guidance.
On the campaign trail in the US, Senator Kerry expresses a unusual political position that is not unusual if it is placed in a more personal context. A Catholic who believes life begins at conception, Kerry will not legislate that part of his faith onto others. In rendering unto Caesar what is Caesars, Kerry acknowledges the importance of his identity as an American; rather than bending America to his faith, he must figure out how to reconcile his faith within the challenges of being American. The dead, literalist faith is often manifest in condemning issues of American politics: no gay marriage, no abortion, no sex ed, no free speech unless you are a Christian.
Similarly, there are many Muslims who claim a living faith of adaptation and understanding while there are those who adhere to what seems a dead faith with an eye toward archaic principles whose enactment in the modern era can bring specifically ungodly results.
In the end, how is Muhammad shown to be the last Prophet? And if that cannot be shown, what will be the effects on Islam as that point of faith is revealed to be in error? In the West, we can only hope for the best: the idea of an intimate, personal relationship with God and Jesus has become the hallmark of the new living faith, in which people no longer expect society to accommodate their every need of faith. That faith, that evolving relationship with God, is theirs and theirs alone. Neither I nor anyone else from the Pope to the lowliest abortion-clinic bomber can take that away.
And as many atheists will remind, the living-faith solution is not without its problems.
But can a Muslim's faith in God become stagnant, even necrotic, if it clings to a non-Quranic principle to such a degree as to forestall any evolution of faith or society?
Take forced marriages, the latest exposé I've noticed on the cable news. How hard will it be to overturn cultural ideas that have been lent religious legitimacy that is enforced by the notion that God will not again send anyone to repent of His standards? It took centuries, and also lots and lots of money, to finally wipe arranged marriages from the Judeo-Christian West. In the West, in lieu of a dowry, it is still traditional for the bride's parents to fund the wedding. Though many folks who shuffled their daughters off to bad husbands may have felt Biblically justified, such a case is nearly impossible to make in the year 2004 in America.
So what happens if we question the finality of Muhammad's prophethood? Does the whole of Islam collapse? Hardly. Rather, I can't see how it would. I would even go so far as to assert that a non-Quranic standard of faith born of necessity during wars of apostasy might hold back the evolution of Islamic faith and leave it for centuries past while the rest of the world moves forward to discover what is yet unwritten.
____________________
• Muhammad.net. "Prophet Muhammad." See http://www.muhammad.net/
• Al-Madeena.com. "Muhammad (PBUH) the Prophet of Islam and the Bible." See http://www.al-madeena.com/muhammad.htm
• The Way to Truth.org. "The Life of the Last Prophet: Prophet Muhammad." See http://www.thewaytotruth.org/catindex7.html
• Armstrong, Karen. "Islam: A Short History." New York: Modern Library, 2000.
See Also -
• Random House.com. "Authors - Karen Armstrong." See http://www.randomhouse.com/modernlibrary/karmstrong.html
The question in terms of modern reform
Should one Google the terms "muhammad last prophet," the result is pretty clear. Some links and their information:
Jesus (peace be on him) was the second-last prophet of God. He foretold the coming of the last Prophet Muhammad (peace be on him).
Muhammad.net
Muhammad is the prophet of the prophets; Muhammad is the last and final Messenger of Allaah. Allaah says: Surah al-Imran 3: 81
Behold! Allaah took the covenant of the Prophets saying: "I give you a Book and Wisdom; then a Messenger will come to you confirming what is with you; you must believe in him and you must help him." Allaah said: "Do you agree and take this My Covenant as binding on you?" They said: "We agree." He said: "Then bear witness and I am with you among the witnesses." (3:81)
This ayah confirmed that Muhammad is the prophet of the prophets; Muhammad is the last and final Messenger of Allaah.
Al-Madeena.com
At a site called The Way to Truth, a list of links pertaining to the Prophet Muhammad bears the title, "The Life of the Last Prophet: Prophet Muhammad."
At this point the theme should be obvious: Is Muhammad the last Prophet?
From Armstrong's Islam - A Short History:
Abu Bakr's reign (632-624) was short but crucial. He was chiefly preoccupied by the so-called wars of riddah (apostasy) when various tribes tried to break away from the ummah and reassert their former independence. It would, however, be a mistake to regard this as a widespread religious defection. The results were entirely political and economic. Most of the Bedouin tribes who had entered the Islamic Confederacy had little interest in the details of Muhammad's religion. The Prophet, a realist, had recognized that many of the alliances he formed were purely political, a matter of one chief joining forces with another, as was customary in the Arabian steppes. Some chiefs may have believed that their pact had been only with Muhammad and not with his successor, and that after his death they were free to raid tribes in the ummah, thus calling upon themselves a Muslim riposte.
It was, however, significant that many of the rebels felt impelled to give their revolts a religious justification; the leaders often claimed to be prophets, and produced Quranic-style "revelations." The Arabs had been through a profound experience. It was not "religious" in our modern sense of the word, since for many it was not a private faith, following an interior conversion. The Prophet had broken the old mould, and suddenly--if momentarily--the Arabs found themselves for the first time members of a united community, free from the burden of constant, debilitating warfare. For the brief years of Muhammad's career they had glimpsed the possibility of an entirely different way of life, bound up with religious change. What happened had been so astounding that even those who wanted to break away from the ummah could only think in prophetic terms. It was probably during the riddah wars that Muslims began to assert that Muhammad had been the last and greatest of the prophets, a claim that is not made explicitly in the Quran, as Muslims countered the challenge of these riddah prophets.
Armstrong, 25-26
(Boldfaced accents by Tiassa)
Rightly or wrongly, Westerners observing Islam get a fairly clear sense that "reform" of Islam is nearly impossible inasmuch as re-examining Quranic values in the modern context is perceived as challenging the authority of God's prophet. Those who acknowledge the humanity and human-family relations we share with our Muslim neighbors are often left scratching our heads: As much as we might wish people to live in peace, conflict seems inevitable unless there is a certain amount of give and take on both sides. The West, we know, seems inflexible in its drive to define everything terms of economy and what profits "us" the most. It is a disappointing assessment of Western perspicacity to say that folks on this side of the gap have a hard time understanding what is wrong with that.
However, the assertion that Muhammad is the last Prophet may be equally problematic. Much as fundamentalist Christians hold Jesus' words in the Bible as fixed, static, and literal--as if Jesus had no inner vision--so do many Muslims seem to hold their interpretations of the Quran as definitive, static, and given by the Last Prophet himself.
I admit I feel safe in raising Armstrong as a counterpoint; she is an honorary member of the Association of Muslim Social Sciences (in addition to being a former Catholic nun who teaches at a Rabbinical school) and recently was honored by the Islamic Center of Southern California as a "bridge builder". Christians, in the past, have mailed her excrement in protest of her books; and while no word has come up that she is similarly antagonized by Muslims, it would be foolish to imagine that she has satisfied all Muslims everywhere.
Thus a simple comparison:
• Muhammad is the last Prophet.
• Says who? This assertion is not in the Quran.
It's hard to explain the difference in a Christian comparison: There is a living faith of Christianity which seeks to find Christ's way in changing times, and there is a dead faith of Christianity which wishes for the simpler days when computers and medicines and information did not present alternatives to religious faith in terms of life guidance.
On the campaign trail in the US, Senator Kerry expresses a unusual political position that is not unusual if it is placed in a more personal context. A Catholic who believes life begins at conception, Kerry will not legislate that part of his faith onto others. In rendering unto Caesar what is Caesars, Kerry acknowledges the importance of his identity as an American; rather than bending America to his faith, he must figure out how to reconcile his faith within the challenges of being American. The dead, literalist faith is often manifest in condemning issues of American politics: no gay marriage, no abortion, no sex ed, no free speech unless you are a Christian.
Similarly, there are many Muslims who claim a living faith of adaptation and understanding while there are those who adhere to what seems a dead faith with an eye toward archaic principles whose enactment in the modern era can bring specifically ungodly results.
In the end, how is Muhammad shown to be the last Prophet? And if that cannot be shown, what will be the effects on Islam as that point of faith is revealed to be in error? In the West, we can only hope for the best: the idea of an intimate, personal relationship with God and Jesus has become the hallmark of the new living faith, in which people no longer expect society to accommodate their every need of faith. That faith, that evolving relationship with God, is theirs and theirs alone. Neither I nor anyone else from the Pope to the lowliest abortion-clinic bomber can take that away.
And as many atheists will remind, the living-faith solution is not without its problems.
But can a Muslim's faith in God become stagnant, even necrotic, if it clings to a non-Quranic principle to such a degree as to forestall any evolution of faith or society?
Take forced marriages, the latest exposé I've noticed on the cable news. How hard will it be to overturn cultural ideas that have been lent religious legitimacy that is enforced by the notion that God will not again send anyone to repent of His standards? It took centuries, and also lots and lots of money, to finally wipe arranged marriages from the Judeo-Christian West. In the West, in lieu of a dowry, it is still traditional for the bride's parents to fund the wedding. Though many folks who shuffled their daughters off to bad husbands may have felt Biblically justified, such a case is nearly impossible to make in the year 2004 in America.
So what happens if we question the finality of Muhammad's prophethood? Does the whole of Islam collapse? Hardly. Rather, I can't see how it would. I would even go so far as to assert that a non-Quranic standard of faith born of necessity during wars of apostasy might hold back the evolution of Islamic faith and leave it for centuries past while the rest of the world moves forward to discover what is yet unwritten.
____________________
• Muhammad.net. "Prophet Muhammad." See http://www.muhammad.net/
• Al-Madeena.com. "Muhammad (PBUH) the Prophet of Islam and the Bible." See http://www.al-madeena.com/muhammad.htm
• The Way to Truth.org. "The Life of the Last Prophet: Prophet Muhammad." See http://www.thewaytotruth.org/catindex7.html
• Armstrong, Karen. "Islam: A Short History." New York: Modern Library, 2000.
See Also -
• Random House.com. "Authors - Karen Armstrong." See http://www.randomhouse.com/modernlibrary/karmstrong.html
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