Ahmadiyyat - The Renaissance of Islam — Page 52
52 AHMADIYY AT Children of Adam, if Messengers come to you from among yourselves, rehearsing My commandments unto you, then whoso is mindful of his duty to Allah and acts righteously, on such shall come no fear nor shall they grieve. But those who reject Our Signs and turn away from them in disdain, these shall be the inmates of the Fire; therein shall they abide [7:36-7]. The context in which the Holy Prophet was designated the Seal of the Prophets was that all his male children, born of his fust marrige, had died while he was still in Mecca. His opponents took up the position that as he was without male issue there would be no one to carryon his mission after him and that with his death the religion founded by him would automatically come to an end. He thereupon received the revelation: 'Surely We have bestowed upon thee abundance of every kind of good. So supplicate thy Lord in gratitude and offer Him sacrifice. Surely, it is thine enemy whose line will be cut off (108:2-4). The Holy Prophet had adopted Zaid as his son in Mecca. After his migration to Medina the institution of adoption was abrogated under divine com- mandment, and this furnished another opportunity to his opponents to charge him with lack of ,male heirs. To repel this charge the verse in question wa,s revealed to him, namely: 'Muhammad is not the father of any of your males, but he is the Messenger of Allah and the Seal of the Prophets. Allah has full knowledge of all things' (33:41). This was designed to draw the attention of friend and foe to the verity that the dispensation instituted by the Holy Prophet, peace be on him, was not in the nature of a secular hereditary kingdom which would terminate on his death without male heirs, but was a spiritual dispensation which 'would be carried on by his spiritual successors who would include among them pro- phets, whose prophethood would be authenticated with his Seal. It was also indicated that with his advent all other prophethoods had been terminated and that henceforth the only prophethood that would survive would be his pro- phethood. It is worthy of note that up to the advent of the Holy