Life of Ahmad — Page 834
REMOVES A MISCONCEPTION as 834 after him does no credit to him. His enemies could at once add an insult by saying that Muhammad sa failed to produce a progeny in the spiritual sense of the word also and thus proved himself barren and Abtar in every respect. According to the context, therefore, the seal of the Prophets must mean that the spiritual descendants of Muhammad sa would be of no mean order. They would, God says, attain to great spiritual distinctions so much so that by following in his footsteps some of them would even become Prophets. Muhammad sa is called here the Lord Privy Seal or the Lord Keeper of the great Divine Seal of Prophethood, which not only ratifies and authenticates the office of the previous Prophets, but also awards the distinctive mark of prophethood to those who make themselves worthy of it. 209 We read in the Bible: 'The Lord will make thee the head, and not the tail; thou shalt be above only, and thou shalt not be beneath. ' (Deut. 28:13). To be the tail of a line, therefore is no credit or distinction. Even if we take the phrase Kh a tamun Nabiyy i n to mean the last of the Prophets, we must interpret it as meaning that he is the last in the sense that he has attained a degree of perfection beyond which it is impossible for anyone to go. He has exhausted all the degrees of perfection and none can ever excel or supersede him. He is the Head of the 209 H aq i qatul Wa hi p. 96.