The Final Prophet by Mohammad Elshinawy

It was too beautiful a day to go inside our building just yet, so my mother and I sat together on the brick ledge surrounding our neighbor’s blooming garden. We lived in Borough Park, Brooklyn (New York City), where over 90% of the neighborhood is comprised of Hasidic Jews, who seemed as committed to their Judaism as we were to our Islam. That must have contributed to the concerns that crowded my thoughts back then, along with the popular sentiment I encountered everywhere that offered another take on religion: that it is irrelevant. It has been over twenty years since that moment, but I have yet to forget my sense of anxiousness as I sat there, gathering the courage to confront my mother with the audacious question.

But my thirst for an answer, and my confidence in the ocean of affection that sat beside me, catapulted the words from my mouth: “Mama, how do we know Islam is right?” She smiled and locked eyes with me. I proceeded to say, “Think about it. Every parent tells their child, ‘This is the true religion,’ so what makes us so sure that we are the ones who are actually right?” What she said next was something along the lines of “just have faith.” It was the very thing I was afraid to hear, especially as an inquisitive thirteen-year-old in the postmodern world, let alone a Muslim in New York City who would soon experience Islamophobic sentiments being ramped up by the 9/11 attacks that would occur a few short miles away.

But in hindsight, it was exactly what I needed to embark on my own faith journey and endure that coming wave of animosity toward Islam and Muslims. Ultimately, it generated this very book you hold, a resource I wish was available when I first explored the world’s major religions, assuming they were all without exception taken on blind faith, irreconcilable with a critically thinking mind, and subsequently unworthy of being held onto when socially inconvenient.

I pray this addition to the English library can mitigate the wildfires that are ablaze in many of our hearts and homes today.

May it heal some of modernity’s wounds with the coolness of conviction, and quench some of the uncertainty that leaves our lives parched for security, fulfillment, and balanced direction.

God knows that for a myriad of reasons, authorship is uncomfortable territory for me, but how can a person sit idle when the virtuous hallmarks of humanity are increasingly trampled beneath the feet of nonreligion, and when the cravings of our caged spirits continue to scorch us at every turn? I pray this book offers some assistance to those who struggle with their own faith or that of their loved ones, those of whom I meet almost daily in my community work or online, and the many more I hear about and cannot reach individually. It is in this vein that I felt called to brave the unfamiliar seas of authorship, and I ask Allah to forgive where I may have erred en route.

This book seeks to highlight humanity’s undying need for prophethood, and the many compelling justifications for the prophethood of Muhammad 2 صلى الله عليه وسلم in particular. By doing so, it subsequently aims to offer a coherent proposition on the true purpose of life that leads to an impregnable inner peace which is only possible through beholding the sunrise of certitude firsthand.

Independent works written on the topic of dalā’il al-nubuwwah (the proofs of prophethood) have always been part of the Muslim intellectual tradition, from as early as the eighth or ninth century. That this literature has been a mainstay of Islamic scholarship is a powerful testament to its commitment to rigorously establishing the bases of its truth claims. Abū Manṣūr al-Baghdādī (d. 1037) reports that Imam al-Shāfi‘ī (d.

820) was the first to compile a book on the proofs establishing the prophethood of Muhammad, as the Brahmins had rejected the possibility of prophecy or divine revelation.3 There are over ninety works from this canon whose titles are known until today, the most famous of them being Dalā’il al-Nubuwwah by Imam al-Bayhaqī (d. 1066). The aim of these authors was to increase the believers in their conviction, dispel doubts regarding Muhammad’s صلى الله عليه وسلم authenticity, and consolidate these evidences in a readily accessible location for anyone inquiring about the truth of his prophethood.

The primary proof of prophethood is God Himself, for it is He who guides us to intuitively seek Him out, and subsequently investigate the claimants to prophethood for an opportunity to better connect with Him. All people are instinctually driven to believe in the existence of God and have an innate impulse to discover this higher power which they sense so strongly. While not every human civilization was driven to develop craftsmanship or formal education, each one committed itself to some form of religious practice. People have done this throughout recorded history, and thus anthropologists have yet to find an indigenous society of atheists, and some scientists today argue that belief in God or a higher power is hardwired into our genes.4 Even communists who disavowed religion still deified Lenin by putting his statue everywhere and reciting his works as if they were scripture. Similarly, modern atheists exhibit a consistent pattern of quasi-religious behavior and are often found seeking alternate forms of spirituality. For instance, only about one million US adults identify as pagan or Wiccan, yet a staggering 60% of Americans ascribe to at least one “New Age” belief such as belief in astrology and/or psychics, or the belief that objects like crystals contain spiritual energy.5 Ultimately, this metaphysical yearning we all experience is a powerful, universal force, created within us by God, that drives us to seek out the prophets He elected to guide us to Him. Their message regarding God, His greatness, His guidance, and the reality of this life and the next resonates so deeply within us that we find ourselves compelled to faith.

We are not just “driven to God” by an inner surety about Him and the impetus to connect with Him, but also by a fascinating “trust” in our ability to find Him. People may not appreciate that while reason may argue for God existing, being wise, and being purposeful, it cannot explain why our minds are reliable instruments of reason in the first place. When the rationalist René Descartes embarked on his intellectual journey, he realized that unbridled skepticism would drown him in uncertainty.

Descartes then sought a safeguard that would ensure that our existence is real, as are our senses that perceive, as are our minds that process. How can we dismiss the possibility that we are merely a figment of an extraterrestrial creature’s imagination, and what guarantee is there that our thinking is not manipulated by evil demons? Descartes was forced to conclude that “trust” was a fundamental necessity here, without which every mode of thought, investigation, and analysis would be pointless. His “I think therefore I am” proposition was adrift without this anchor, and nothing qualified to ground it but God Himself. In Descartes’ framing, we must accept that God cannot be a deceiver because deception is an imperfection, and since He has equipped us with the faculties to arrive at certain truths, then we should pursue truth. He writes, ...that the sun is of such and such a figure, etc., or which are less clearly and distinctly conceived, such as light, sound, pain and the like, it is certain that although they are very dubious and uncertain, yet on the sole ground that God is not a deceiver, and that consequently, He has not permitted any falsity to exist in my opinion which He has not likewise given me the faculty of correcting, I may assuredly hope to conclude that I have within me the means of arriving at the truth even here.6

While being given the ability to correct “any falsity” is an overestimation of the human intellect, Descartes was correct in realizing that without first conceding that God is responsible for our capacity to think straight, no rational arguments can follow. When skeptics seek an explanation for God, when God is the explanation for us, circular reasoning becomes inescapable. This is why one of God’s divine names in the Qur’an is al-Ḥaqq: the Ultimate Reality, the One without whom no truth or reality is possible.7 Critical thinkers will recognize this as their indispensable philosophical stronghold, a refuge against dogmatism, and the bedrock upon which all empirical and rational proofs must stand. It is their only guarantee that polemical acrobatics and fancy language will never become a Trojan horse that breaches their defenses, corrupts their worldview, and renders them powerless prey before the fangs of radical skepticism.8

Hence, it is ultimately God who created within us knowledge of Him, an insatiable appetite to connect with Him, and a confidence in our ability to investigate the proofs offered by anyone who claims to speak in His name.

It is from God’s mercy that He sent with each prophet and messenger signs that were relevant to his context, and He surrounded Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم with a multitude of proofs, for he was God’s “mercy to the worlds,”9 and hence had to be relevant not only to all at his time but also for all time to come. The variety of proofs are what make them relatable to every era, culture, and mindset. During the Prophet Muhammad’s صلى الله عليه وسلم lifetime, some accepted his ministry after one glance at his face. ‘Abdullāh ibn Salām 10 said, “I immediately knew that this was not the face of a liar.”11 Another was brought to firm conviction after hearing a few short statements espousing the values of Islam. Ṭufayl ibn ‘Amr  said, “I have never heard anything superior or more balanced than this.”12 Others confirmed his prophethood based on his reputation for being truthful. The leadership of Quraysh said after living forty years with him, “We have experienced nothing but honesty from you.”13 Others believed after witnessing miracles, understanding that nothing ordinary could have explained these astonishing occurrences.

By this variety, a nomadic shepherd in the Himalayas can follow any number of pathways to certainty, as can the ivory tower philosopher, as can the buzzing hordes under the skyscrapers of New York City, as can the banana workers in Ecuador.

God also made the proofs verifying the prophethood of Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم crystal clear, so that any honest seeker can recognize them. As for those who obsess over the material world, or those who give precedence to their social relationships over their supreme Creator, or those whose self-conceit has blinded them to the flaws of their arguments, they will only find clouded judgment. In many of these cases, their flawed justifications may go unnoticed even by themselves, for people have always been able to lock themselves in echo chambers, surrender to groupthink, and effectively silence their consciences and the guilt of denying the undeniable. As Allah says, “And [even] if We opened to them a gate from the heaven and they continued therein to ascend, they would say, ‘Our eyes have only been dazzled. Rather, we are a people affected by magic.’”14

In Islam, believing in all the prophets and messengers of God is a fundamental requirement of valid faith, and Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم is certainly no exception to that rule. Allah says, “Muhammad is not the father of [any] one of your men, but [he is] the Messenger of Allah and the last of the prophets. And ever is Allah, of all things, Knowing.”15

Given this verse, whoever believes in Allah’s words must accept that Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم was His final prophet and messenger, and conversely, whoever rejects Muhammad has disbelieved in the One who sent him. But in case a person is still investigating the Qur’an, we will first begin with why prophethood in general is necessary, why Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم in particular was most certainly a prophet of God, and then conclude by establishing the divine origins of the Qur’an.