Afterword: Finality of Prophet Muhammad’s Message

Source: Ahmad ibn Naqib al-Misri’s “The Reliance of the Traveler – A Classic Manual of Islamic Sacred Law”, circa 1360 C.E.

“This section has been translated to clarify some possible confusion among Muslims as to Islam’s place among world religions. The discussion centers on three points:

(1) Muhammad (pbuh) is the last prophet and messenger. Anyone claiming to be a prophet or messenger of God after him or to found a new religion is a fraud, misled and misleading.

(2) Previously revealed religion were valid in their own eras, as is attested to by many verses of the Holy Qur’an, but were abrogated by the universal message of Islam, as is equally attested to by many verses of the Qur’an. Both points are worthy of attention from English-speaking Muslims, who are occasionally exposed to erroneous theories advanced by some teachers and Qur’an translators affirming these religions’ validity but denying or not mentioning their abrogation, or that it is unbelief (kufr) to hold that the remnant cults now bearing the names of formerly valid religions, such as “Christianity” or “Judaism” are acceptable to God Most High after He has sent the final Messenger (pbuh) to the entire world. This is a matter over which there is no disagreement among Islamic scholars, and if English-speaking Muslims at times discuss it as if there were some question about it, the only reason can be that no one has yet offered them a translation of a scholarly Qur’anic exegesis (tafsir) to explain the accord between the various Qur’anic verses, and their agreement with the sunna. The few passages translated below will hopefully be of use until this has been done.

(3) Islam is the final religion that God Most High will never lessen or abrogate until the Last Day