PART IX: The names of the last prophet in the Holy Quran

Firstly: the names of the last prophet sent by the Lord God:

1- The last prophet of the Lord God has two names in the Quranic text as follows.

1/1: The name (Ahmed) is mentioned here: "And when Jesus son of Mary said, “O Israelites, I am God’s messenger to you, confirming what preceded me of the Torah, and announcing good news of a messenger who will come after me, whose name is Ahmed.”..." (61:6).

1/2: The name (Muhammad) is mentioned four times in the entire Quranic text. We will demonstrate these four contexts later in the lines below.

2- Muhammad has certain descriptions by which the Lord God has addressed him as follows.

2/1: "O you enwrapped one. Stay up the night, except a little. For half of it, or reduce it a little. Or add to it; and read the Quranic verses one after the other. We are about to give you a heavy message." (73:1-5).

2/2: "O you enrobed one. Arise and warn. And magnify your Lord. And purify your clothes. And abandon abominations. And show no favor seeking gain. And be constant for your Lord." (74:1-7).

2/3: "O prophet! We have sent you as a witness, and a bearer of good news, and a warner. And a caller towards God by His leave, and an illuminating beacon." (33:45-46).

2/4: "We sent you as a witness, and a bearer of good news, and a warner." (48:8).

Secondly: the name (Muhammad) in the Quran:

 The name (Muhammad) is mentioned four times only, and exclusively in Quranic verses revealed in Yathreb, regarding the topic of asserting the fact that Muhammad was a mortal human being. We will demonstrate these four contexts in the points below.

1- During his lifetime in Arabia, Muhammad received news of his own inevitable death: "Muhammad is no more than a messenger. Messengers have passed on before him. If he dies or gets killed, will you turn on your heels? He who turns on his heels will not harm God in any way. And God will reward the thankful ones. No soul can die except by God’s leave, at a predetermined time. Whoever desires the reward of the world, We will give him some of it; and whoever desires the reward of the Hereafter, We will give him some of it; and We will reward the thankful ones." (3:144-145). This Quranic context is about commenting on the battle of Uhud when some believers in the self-defense troops assumed wrongly that Muhammad got killed in the battlefield. This Quranic context informs us of the fact that Muhammad was a mortal human being; his died like all mortals; the call of monotheism will remain after him until the end of days because it is never linked to his being alive in this transient world; rather, it is linked to the Quranic Message preserved and protected by the Omnipotent Lord God until the advent of the Hour before the Resurrection Day.

2- This Quranic verse is about the human being named Muhammad who married, had marital sex, and had children: "Muhammad is not the father of any of your men; but he is the messenger of God, and the last of the prophets. God is Cognizant of everything." (33:40)

2/1: The Quranic verse 33:40 predicts that Muhammad will never have sons who will reach adulthood; his sons died as children and therefore they never got married; i.e., they had no progeny or descendants at all. Of course, 33:40 asserts the fact that Muhammad is the last prophet; the Lord God will never send any more messengers/prophets after the death of Muhammad; there will be no more divine revelation granted to anyone until the end of days when the Hour takes place. 

2/2: The polytheistic Muhammadans would have deified any descendants of Muhammad were he to have any grandchildren from his own sons. Strangely, the polytheistic Sunnite, Shiite, and Sufi Muhammadans already deify Hussein the son of Fatima, the daughter of Muhammad, and place him in a stature above the Lord God Himself; what would be the level of deification they would have assigned to sons and grandchildren of Muhammad if his sons would have lived long enough to get married and to beget children?!

3- We are not to deify or believe in Muhammad; we are to believe in the Quran sent down to him: "Those who disbelieve and repel from the Path of God - He nullifies their works. While those who believe, and work righteousness, and believe in what was sent down to Muhammad - and it is the Truth from their Lord - He remits their sins, and relieves their concerns. That is because those who disbelieve follow falsehoods, while those who believe follow the Truth from their Lord. God thus cites for the people their examples." (47:1-3).

3/1: We see in 47:1-3 the comparison between (1) the disbelievers who repel others from the Quranic Truth and (2) the Quran-believing monotheists; the Lord God will nullify all deeds of the disbelievers; i.e., their deeds will bear no fruit at all in the Hereafter: "It was revealed to you, and to those before you, that if you adhere to polytheism, your works will be in vain, and you will be of the losers." (39:65); "We will proceed to the works they did, and will turn them into scattered dust." (25:23); "...Whoever associates others with God within polytheism, God has forbidden him Paradise, and his dwelling is the Fire. The unjust ones have no supporters." (5:72). Quranists who believe only in the Holy Quran as the Only Discourse in Islam are monotheists who follow the Truth sent down to humanity from the Lord God; this means that the Lord God will remit their sins and relieve their concerns.

3/2: In 47:2, we find this phrase (believe in what was sent down to Muhammad - and it is the Truth from their Lord); this means to believe in the Quran granted to Muhammad and NOT in Muhammad. In Islam, there is no belief in persons; to believe in mortals means to deify them as gods/goddesses besides the Lord God. This polytheism contradicts the monotheism of (There is no God but Allah). The true belief is to believe in the divine revelation sent down to messengers/prophets. To trust or believe with a messenger/prophet means to believe in the divine revelation granted to him from the Lord God: "Had they believed in God and with the prophet, and in what was revealed to him, they would not have befriended them. But many of them are sinful." (5:81). This means that the divine revelation is the sphere of the monotheistic belief (or Islam). Of course, receiving divine revelation is what makes the Lord God's messengers/prophets differ from other human beings. Therefore, what is required within Islam (or the monotheistic belief) is to believe in this divine revelation which made messengers/prophets of Allah outstanding when compared to the rest of human beings. We are never to deify messengers/prophets of Allah because such polytheism is against Islam and is never accepted by Allah.

3/3: To believe in the Messenger means to believe in the Quranic Message granted to Muhammad as the divine revelation and not in Muhammad as a deified being: "O you who believe! Believe in God and in His Messenger, and in the Book He sent down to His messenger, and the Book He sent down before. Whoever rejects God, His angels, His Books, His messengers, and the Last Day, has strayed far in error." (4:136). The capitalized word (Messenger) in 4:136 refers only to the Quran itself and never to Muhammad; the word (messenger) with the small letter (m) in 4:136 refers only to Muhammad as he read the Quranic verses. Pondering deeply on 4:136, we infer that the belief in the Divine Book, or the Quran, includes the belief in Allah, the Last Day, and in the existence of the prophets/messengers who, before their death, received divine revelation sent down to them by Allah. This means that despite the different tongues of the Celestial Scriptures and the different tongues, regions, and eras of prophets/messengers who conveyed these Scriptures, it is essentially One Divine Book with the same basic or core notions; hence, to believe in the Quran (or in any of the previous Scriptures) is to believe in all of the Divine, Celestial Scriptures revealed by Allah to all prophets/messengers and to believe in Allah as the Only One True Lord God without partners or associates. As for our topic here about Muhammad, we are not to believe in Muhammad as a person or an individual so as not to deify him; rather, the belief should be in the Messenger or the Divine Message: the Holy Quran itself which confirms and endorses the previous Celestial Scriptures of the Lord God.  

4- This Quranic verse is about the mortal human beings Muhammad and those with him; i.e., his contemporaries: "Muhammad is the messenger of God. Those with him are stern against the disbelievers, yet compassionate amongst themselves. You see them kneeling, prostrating, seeking blessings from God and approval. Their marks are on their faces from the effects of prostration. Such is their description in the Torah, and their description in the Gospel: like a plant that sprouts, becomes strong, grows thick, and rests on its stem, impressing the farmers. Through them He enrages the disbelievers. God has promised those among them who believe and do good deeds forgiveness and a great reward." (48:29).

4/1: The Quranic verse 48:29 tells us about Muhammad and his contemporaries as human beings who interacted and lived in the same era and the same region. In 48:29, we see the overt features of such mortals who lived in Arabia at the time. During their lifetime, and they lived for a while after the death of Muhammad, the Lord God has not given them any promise of Paradise to rely on so that they would not perform any good deeds within monotheistic faith. This is why we find this phrase in 48:29 (God has promised those among them who believe and do good deeds forgiveness and a great reward). The beginning of 48:29 talks about all of them, but by the end of 48:29, we read this phrase (those among them) and not all of them.

4/2: When we read the history of those contemporaries of Muhammad who outlived him, we see that once Muhammad died, they committed aggression against peaceful nations, who never harmed the Arabs of Arabia, within the Arab conquests. Such contemporaries of Muhammad engaged into fierce civil strife (and full-fledged civil wars) as they disputed over spoils and ill-gotten money, assets, and treasures stolen from the conquered regions. These undeniable historical facts make us understand the reason of the existence of the phrase(those among them) in 48:29 regarding the contemporaries of Muhammad; not all of them deserve to be among the dwellers of Paradise in the Hereafter. Paradise will never be for the unjust ones even if they appeared to be pious, as per 48:29, during Muhammad's lifetime. What matters most regarding entering into Paradise is to live within piety and to die as a pious submitter to the Lord God; i.e., as a monotheist/Muslim: "O you who believe! Revere God within piety with due reverence, and do not die except as Muslims." (3:102). Of course, Islam in term of behavior is peaceful demeanor when dealing with others; Islam in terms of faith/belief inside one's soul/heart is obedience/submission to the Lord God's Quranic commands within monotheism and piety. This is in contrast to the grave sins and violations of the four sinful pre-Umayyad caliphs and the so-called companions of Muhammad who, once Muhammad died, conquered and invaded many regions and thus committed many grave injustices and acts of violence and aggression against innocent, peaceful people. 

4/3: Typically, the hardest test in life is prosperity/bounty and not adversity/ordeals; this is why Joseph who was the richest and most powerful man in Egypt supplicated this way, within gratitude and thankfulness, to the Dominant Lord God after his being reunited with his family members after long years of separation: "“My Lord, You have given me some authority, and taught me some interpretation of events. Initiator of the heavens and the earth; You are my Protector in this life and in the Hereafter. Receive my soul in submission, and unite me with the righteous ones.”" (12:101). This means that Joseph supplicated to the Lord God to die as a Muslim (i.e., a monotheistic submitter to the Lord God) who believes in the Islamic Truth (i.e., monotheism) and joins the righteous ones in Paradise; this is because what matters most is to die within monotheism and piety.

4/4: The greatness of the Holy Quran manifests itself in a very special manner in 48:29 because it refutes in advance the stance of those who, centuries after the revelation of the Quran, have deified the so-called companions of Muhammad (i.e., his contemporaries) described in 48:29 as (those with him). The Muhammadans, past and present, deify, sanctify, and revere such companions and deem them as 'infallible' beings whose fate is in Paradise; the Muhammadans assume wrongly that the Lord God promised Paradise to all such companions. This is not true; despite the appearance of piety mentioned in 48:29, there were hypocrites around Muhammad and he never knew that they hated him and hated Islam (i.e., the Quran itself) very much: "Among the Desert-Arabs around you there are some hypocrites, and among the inhabitants of the city too. They have become adamant in hypocrisy. You do not know them, but We know them. We will torment them twice; then they will be returned to a severe torment." (9:101). This means that among the contemporaries of Muhammad (or the so-called companions) were those who died as disbelieving hypocrites whose fate is Hell after their being tormented twice in this transient world before their death. This is apart from the frank, overt hypocrites in Yathreb whose deeds, words, and stances exposed their hypocrisy and disbelief who lied and swore by the Holy Name of God in vain that they did not say/do such-and-such things. Those hypocrites in Yathreb vacillated and fluctuated between belief and disbelief until they eventually chose disbelief; their fate in the Hereafter is the lowest level of Hell: "Those who believe, then disbelieve, then believe, then disbelieve, then increase in disbelief, God will not forgive them, nor will He guide them to a way." (4:137); "The hypocrites will be in the lowest level of the Hell-Fire, and you will find no helper for them." (4:145). Such hypocrites are included in the first half of the Quranic verse 48:29 here (Those with him...the effects of prostration); this is why they are removed from forgiveness and great reward (i.e., in Paradise) by the end of the Quranic verse 48:29 here (God has promised those among them who believe and do good deeds forgiveness and a great reward).

Lastly:

1- The Arab conquests spread the disbelief in, and the rejection of, Islam (i.e., the Quran) and resulted in the emergence of the terrestrial religions of Satan of which three have survived; namely, the Sunnite, Shiite, and Sufi religions. Such devilish terrestrial religions contradict one another and are filled with schisms discrepancies, contradictions, and disputes all the time; yet, they concur in one thing; namely, they have abandoned and rejected the Quran; i.e., they have rejected the Only True Islam. The three devilish terrestrial religions agree on another thing; namely, to deify a false, imaginary god, whom they named as (Muhammad), and to consider him as a deity above the Lord Allah Himself. The third item shared by the three devilish terrestrial religions of the Muhammadans is that they deify other gods labeled as imams, sheikhs, clergymen, authors, and (fe)male saints/allies.  

2- Within their deifying a fashioned, false god named by them as (Muhammad), the Muhammadans have invented 'holy' epithets or names attributed to this imaginary deity. We will discuss this topic in detail in the next article of this book.

COMMENTS:

(1) Mr. Saeed Ali: What matters most is to adhere to piety until one dies as a Muslim/submitter to the Lord God. Piety is the essence of Islam, and this is the title of one of the previous articles by my dear Dr. Mansour (http://www.ahl-alquran.com/English/show_article.php?main_id=14282). Piety means to fear no one but the Lord God; it is a grave sin to make the great religion of Islam be dwarfed by being represented by a man or any mortals. Muhammad did not represent Islam. The polytheists who deify him never esteem the Lord God as He should be esteemed.

(2) Mr. Omar Ali: Thank you, my dear Dr. Mansour, for encouraging me. I don't have much time to write lengthy articles though; this is because I am too busy in my workplace and at home. It is indeed a very devilish idea to assume that as if (the deified) Muhammad were an immortal god who controls the Last Day as the 'grand intercessor'; this wishful thinking is embraced by polytheists deceived by Satan; they forget that as per the Holy Quran, Satan is bent on tempting the vast majority of human beings and he will disown them on the Last Day inside Hell as per 14:22.  

(3) Mr. Ben Levante: Muhammad was a mortal prophet and messenger; he was a human being. I disagree with the commentary on 49:29 by my brother Dr. Mansour; 49:2 implies that Muhammad is promised with Paradise after being pardoned by Allah; yet, why would 49:29 include Muhammad as well?!

(4) Dr. Ahmed Subhy Mansour: We say to our dear brother, Mr. Ben Levante, that the phrase (among them) in 49:29 refers to contemporaries of Muhammad and not to Muhammad; or else, this would have contradicted 49:2. Of course, the Lord God's Word, the Holy Quran, contains no contradictions at all. By the way, the Quranic Chapter 49 contains descriptions of several types of the companions or contemporaries of Muhammad.

(5) Dr. Ahmed Subhy Mansour: We thank our sons Mr. Saeed Ali and Mr. Omar Ali. We say here that true monotheists never equate anyone with the Lord God; if 1% (or less) of sanctification is dedicated to an item or a mortal, and 99% dedicated to the Lord God, this is polytheism leading to Hell if one dies without repentance and one's good deeds will be nullified and will never be accepted by the Lord God. The mortals deified by polytheists will disown them in the Hereafter.