Muhammad: Seal of the Prophets — Page 458
MUHAMMAD : SEAL OF THE PROPHETS 458 only One God. So let him who hopes to meet his Lord act righteously, and let him associate no one in the worship of his Lord’ (18:111). When challenged by his opponents to show them a sign, like causing a spring to gush forth from the earth, or causing the heavens to fall upon them in pieces, or ascending to heaven and bringing down with him a book which they could read, he was commanded t o reply, ‘Holy is my Lord. Jam but a man sent as a Messenger’ (17:91 - 4). It was necessary to stress this both in view of what had happened in the case of some previous prophets who were exalted as divinities by their followers, and also for the simple reason that only a man can be an exemplar for men. An angel or a god cannot s et an example, which men can follow. The dimensions would be utterly disparate. It is a curious inversion that a prophet’s opponents often seek to justify their rejection of him on the ground that he is but a man like them, a single individual from among t hemselves (54:25). Yet, as the Quran points out, it is only a man who can serve as God’s Messenger to men. ‘An angel would be sent as a Prophet if the earth were peopled with angels’ (17:95 - 6) The Holy Prophet’s disclaimer of any supernatural powers or capacities is repeatedly emphasized in the Quran. For instance, he is commanded to say that he does not possess knowledge of the unseen, save only that much as God reveals to him (2:256; 72:27 - 8). Had he possessed such knowledge, he would have collected abundant good for himself, and no evil could have touched him (7:189). It is true that the Holy Prophet had full faith in God’s