NOTICE: This article is a reproduction from Submitters Perspective No 62, February 1990.
“The Message” (Journal of the Islamic Circle of North America) of December 89 has published an article by Omar Afzal titled “What Islam Says About Prophethood” (Page 23). Although Mr. Afzal did not say that the Prophet Muhammad was the “Final Messenger,” the magazine’s editor could not resist the tragic human tendency to bestow finality of messengership (40:34): he added a subtitle stating that the Prophet Muhammad was also “The Final Messenger.”
The Quranic truth is that God’s Messenger of the Covenant is very clearly prophesied in 3:81; he is commissioned by Almighty God to purity all the scriptures, including the Quran, and to consolidate and unify all religions under the banner of worshiping God ALONE. From 33:7, we learn that the Prophet Muhammad was not God’s Messenger of the Covenant. God has provided overwhelming Quranic and physical evidence spelling out the name of God’s Messenger of the Covenant as “Rashad Khalifa.” Anyone who rejects these Quranic truths is no longer a Muslim (3:82-91).
Obviously Mr. Omar Afzal did a good job researching his subject. This is why he reiterated the Quranic truth that the Prophet Muhammad was the Final Prophet (33:40). He was the final prophet because he delivered the final scripture. The same verse (33:40) tells us that Muhammad was not the final messenger.
Why Another Messenger Now?
The editor of “The Message” rejects the idea of sending a messenger after Muhammad, and the article writer, Omar Afzal indicates that since the Prophet Muhammad delivered the Final Scripture, the Quran, there is no need for another messenger! He thus questions God’s wisdom.
THE FACTS
Our Creator’s decision is to send a consolidating messenger after all the prophets have come to this world and have delivered all the scriptures (3:81). No one can deny this Quranic fact and continue to claim that he or she is a believer in the Quran.
A true submitter, a true Muslim, would look at the matter from the basic conviction that God will send His Messenger of the Covenant to purify and consolidate all the scriptures. The true Muslim would ask: “When will God’s Messenger of the Covenant arrive? What does he look like? What is his name? How am I going to recognize him? How can I support him and participate in his sacred mission? Will I be fortunate enough to be one of his contemporaries, or associates?
DO WE NEED A MESSENGER?
Omar Afzal questioned God’s wisdom when he stated that we do not need a messenger after the Prophet Muhammad. Since we have the Quran, perfectly preserved, we no longer need a messenger, he thought.
But a careful, or even a not-so-careful look at the Muslims, proves that everything they do is wrong. Therefore, if they continue to practice the corrupted religion they inherited from their ancestors, they will positively end up in Hell. Do we not need a messenger? The Most Merciful, out of His immense mercy, grace, and infinite wisdom has willed that a messenger should come now to save us from Hell. The last few issues of SP have pointed out in detail that the Muslims are doing everything contrary to the Quran: their ablution, Salat, Zakat, fasting, & Hajj are all wrong. We need a messenger.