Forty Gems of Beauty — Page 31
31 dispensation and, instead, initiate another dispensation. If one came along, he would necessarily be of his own following, his disciple, and as a servant of his Shariah, within the fold of his prophethood and not beyond its pale. In order to clarify its purport, our master (May peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) added the words: “And this mosque of mine is the last mosque. ” It is clear that, by these words, it was not meant, nor do subsequent events support the sense, that there would never be built another mosque in the world. On the contrary, it meant that there would not be a mosque in opposition to his mosque and that all mosques henceforth shall be constructed in line with and in imitation of his mosque, as its copies and as its reflections. Similarly, [i. e. , “ I am verily the last of Prophets ”] means that there can be no prophet, in future, independent of allegiance to him and with rival prophethood and with a religion other than his. On the contrary, whosoever comes along would be his servant, his disciple, his subject, his reflection, and so to say, a part of his person. This is the deep philosophy underlying the designation of Kh a taman- Nabiyy i n [Seal of the Prophets] given to the Holy Prophet (May peace and blessings of Allah be on him) in a verse of the Quran. Ponder well the point that, if the sense underlying the saying, “ This mosque of mine is the last mosque”, remains intact in spite of tens of thousands of mosques having been built in Muslim countries, besides his mosque at Medina, how can then the grant of prophethood to a servant, a disciple, and a subject of his from among his followers, militate against the idea of Khatm-i-Nubuwwat [finality of prophethood] or against the spirit of the Hadith, “ I am verily the last of Prophets?” This Hadith, therefore, definitely means that he was the last law- bearing Prophet and that no Prophet would come after him, independent of his bondage and with a Shariah, Hadith, and Sunnah