With Love to Muhammad (sa) - The Khatam-un-Nabiyyin — Page 284
284 With Love to Muhammad sa the Kh ā tam-un-Nabiyy ī n prophethood see no harm in building more mosques. In fact, their zeal for building mosques is excessive. There are towns which contain more mosques than are really required; many, therefore, remain without worshippers. In many towns mosques are to be found at short distances from each other, so that their superfluity is evident. If the expression the last of the prophets entails the abolition of prophethood, the expression last of the mosques must entail the abolition of mosque-building after the prophet's mosque. To be sure, solutions of this difficulty are attempted. It is said that mosques built by Muslims after the Holy Prophet’s sa time are mosques devoted to the form of worship instituted by the Holy Prophet sa. They are built for the same purpose as the Holy Prophet sa built the first mosque. Mosques built by Muslims, therefore, are the Prophet’s own mosques. They cannot be separated from the model which they imitate. Such mosques cannot and do not contradict the fact that the Prophet’s mosque is the last. The solution is a valid one. But it is equally valid to say that the expression the last prophet does not prohibit the coming of prophets who imitate the life and example of the Holy Prophet sa , teach nothing new, and only follow him and his teaching; who are charged with the duty of spreading the Holy Prophet’s teaching; who attribute their spiritual acquisitions including prophethood to the spiritual example and influence of their preceptor and master, the Holy Prophet sa. The coming of such prophets does not offend against the Holy Prophet’s prerogative as the Last Prophet , in the same way and