وَالَّذِينَ يُؤْمِنُونَ بِمَا أُنْزِلَ إِلَيْكَ وَمَا أُنْزِلَ مِنْ قَبْلِكَ وَبِالْآخِرَةِ هُمْ يُوقِنُونَ

"And who believe in (the Quran and the Sunnah) which has been sent down (revealed) to you (Muhammad Peace be upon him ) and in [the Taurat (Torah) and the Injeel (Gospel), etc.] which were sent down before you and they believe with certainty in the Hereafter. (Resurrection, recompense of their good and bad deeds, Paradise and Hell, etc.)." [2:4]

The mode of expression helps us to infer from this verse the fundamental principle that the Holy Prophet Muhammad (salallahu 'alayhi wa sallam) is the last of all the prophets (alayhimus-sallam), and the Book revealed to him is the final revelation and the last Book of Allah. For, had Allah intended to reveal another Book or to continue the mode of revelation even after the Holy Qur'an, this verse, while prescribing belief in the earlier Books as necessary for Muslims, must also have referred to belief in the Book or Books to be revealed in the future.

In fact, such a statement was all the more needed, for people were already familiar with the necessity of believing in the Torah, the Evangile and the earlier Books, and such a belief was in regular practice too, but if prophethood and revalation were to continue even after the Holy Prophet (salallahu 'alayhi wa sallam), it was essential that the coming of another prophet and another book should be clearly indicated so that people were not left in doubt about this possibility.

So, in defining 'Iman (faith), the Holy Qur'an mentions the earlier prophets (alayhimus-sallam) and the earlier Books, but does not make the slightest reference to a prophet or Book to come "after the last Prophet (salallahu 'alayhi wasallam).

The matter does not end with this verse. The Holy Qur'an touches upon the subject again and again in no less than forty or fifty verses, and in all such places it mentions the prophets (alayhimus-sallam), the Books and the revelation preceding the Holy Prophet (salallahu 'alayhi wa sallam), but nowhere is there even so much as a hint with regard to the coming of a prophet or of a revelation in the future, belief in whom or which should be necessary. We cite some verses to demonstrate the point:

"And what We have sent down before you." (16:43)

"And We have certainly sent messengers before you." (4038)

And certainly before you We have sent messengers." (20:47)

"And what was revealed before you." (4:60)

"And it has certainly been revealed to you and to those who have gone before you." (39:65)

"Thus He reveals to you and He revealed to those who have gone before you." (42:3)

"Fasting is decreed (literally, written) for you as it was decreed for those before you." (2:183)

"Such was Our way with the messengers whom We sent before you." (17:77)

In these and similar verses, whenever the Holy Qur'an speaks of the sending down of a Book or a revelation or a prophet or a messenger, it always attaches the conditional phrase, Min qabl (before) or Min Qablik (before you), and nowhere does it employ or suggest an expression like min ba'd (after you). Even if other verses of the Holy Qur'an had not been explicit about the finality of the prophethood of Muhammad (salallahu 'alayhi wa sallam) and about the cessation of revelation, the mode of expression adopted by the Holy Qur'an in the present verse would in itself have been sufficient to prove these points.

[Ma'ariful Quran, Volume 1]

» Posted by Seifeddine-M on 4th January 2011

0 Comments