Completion of Deen

                                  

Muslims’ view is that Allah sent Hazrat Muhammad (saw) for the guidance of whole mankind to come, and revealed complete guidance unto him and, through him, to whole mankind to come. This claim put forth by the Muslims has to fulfill some conditions. Let us analyze in the succeeding lines how far islamic scriptures (Quran and Sunnah) respond to these conditions.

i.             The first condition to justify this claim is whether  Quran and Sunnah declare guidance revealed to Muhammad (saw) as a complete guidance. The answer to this question is positive; The Quran says:

“This day (al-yum) I have perfected for you your religion and completed My favor upon you and have approved for you Islam as religion” (maidah-3).

In this verse, news of completion of ‘Deen’ has been given. Some people object if this verse has completed our ‘Deen’, it should be the last verse revealed to our Nabi (saw); but we know that some verses were revealed after that verse. The answer to this objection is given in the following lines.

According to Modudi (ra), the word ‘this day/al-yum’ used in this verse means ‘present period of time’; it does not mean a ‘single day’. Moududi’s (ra) this view seems to be completely justiable in the light of Quran.  This word has been used many a times in Quran; each time, it has been used with the meaning of a ‘ period of time’ consisting of ‘days, months, years or thousands of years’; nowhere in Quran it has been used with the meaning of ‘single earthly day’. Many times this word has been used with word ‘aakhira’ e.g. ‘al-yum-ul-aakhira’; we know that ‘al-yum-ul-aakhira’  consists of thousands of years. Sura baqra-249 also mentions this word ‘al-yum’ with the meaning of ‘present period of time’; this verse states: 

“When Talut set forth with the armies, he said: "Allah will test you at the stream: if any drinks of its water, He goes not with my army: Only those who taste not of it go with me: A mere sip out of the hand is excused." but they all drank of it, except a few. When they crossed the river,- He and the faithful ones with him,- they said: "This day We cannot cope with Goliath and his forces." but those who were convinced that they must meet Allah, said: "How oft, by Allah's will, Hath a small force vanquished a big one? Allah is with those who steadfastly persevere".

This verse states about Talut’s army offensive march towards Jalut’s army. On the way, Talut found that most of his army-men are not faithful to him; out of eighty thousand only about three hundred remained with Talut. On finding that Talut and his handful faithful army-men said: “this day/al-yum, We cannot cope with Goliath and his forces”. Obviously, Talut and his handful faithful companions could not raise a new army in a single day; therefore the meaning of saying that “today/al-yum, we cannot cope with Goliath (Jalut)……” is not that they could not fight against Jalut in that single day only; rather it means that they could not fight Jalut and his army in that present period of time consisting of many days at least.

It may be noted that connotation of word ‘yum’ is different from that of ‘al-yum’ in Quranic terminology; word ‘yum’ may mean a single day, but word ‘al-yum’ means a period of time, as discussed above.

In the light of above discussion, we can find that word ‘al-yum’ used in al-maidah-3 means not a single day but it means ‘that period of time’ which may consist of many months.   Our Nabi (saw) survived only 81 days after revelation of this verse. This verse states:

“This day (al-yum) I have perfected for you your religion and completed My favor upon you and have approved for you Islam as religion” (maidah-3).

This verse would mean Allah would complete ‘Deen’ in that period of time in which this verse was revealed, and from the words “completed My favor upon you”,  it is clearly indicated that completion of ‘Deen’ would be done on Muslims of that period through our Nabi (saw) because the word 'you' include the Muslims of that period of time including our Nabi (s.a.w.w) .

 Therefore, we may conclude that Quran mentions about guidance revealed to our Nabi (saw) as a complete guidance.

ii.           The second condition to justify the claim mentioned above is whether Quran and Sunnah describe Muhammad (saw) as a Messenger for whole mankind.

The answer to this question is also positive.

The Quran says:

“Say, [Muhammad (saw)], "O mankind, indeed I am the Messenger of Allah to you all, [from Him] to whom belongs the dominion of the heavens and the earth….” (al-araf-158).

“And We have not sent you but as a mercy to the worlds” (al-anbia-107).

From these verses, it is clear enough that our Nabi (saw) is the Messenger for the whole mankind to come.

iii.          The third condition is whether Muhammad (saw) is last of  the Messengers (Rusul).

The answer to this question is also positive.

“Muhammad (saw) is not the father of [any] one of your men, but [he is] the Messenger of Allah and last of the prophets. And ever is Allah , of all things, Knowing” (al-ahzab-40).

This verse clearly states that our Nabi (saw) is last of the ‘Nabis’.  Another verse reflects that our Nabi (saw) is also last of the Messengers (Rasool/Rusul). Al-imran-81 states that " And when Allah took the covenant of the 'Nabis', [saying], "Whatever I give you of Book and wisdom, afterward there comes to you a messenger (Rasool) confirming what is with you, you [must] believe in him and support him...".

From this above quoted verse, a few points are evident: i. whenever one or more Nabis (as) are sent to a nation, a 'Rasool' is essentially sent after such 'Nabis'; ii.  it means that the last prophet has to be a 'Rasool' or a Rasool and Nabi combined; but the last prophet cannot be a Nabi alone; iii. The Nabis are given only a part of the Book which is given completely to the 'Rasool' of whose ummah such Nabis belong to (that is why the Rasool testifies that is revealed to all  Nabis belonging to his ummah). (for details plz see my article “ Difference between Resalat and Nabuwwat”).

From above discussion, we may infer that our Nabi (saw) is the last of the ‘Nabis’. 

He is also last of the Messengers (Rusul).  A 'Rasool' is sent to an ummah which may consist of more than one nations; whereas a 'Nabi' is sent to a nation only (except those 'Nabis' who are'Rasool' also). In Quran, sending of a 'Nabi' is described always with reference to a nation; whereas sending of a 'Rasool' is described with reference to an ummah (al-nahl-36; al-muminoon-44,52;Ghafer-5).

A Rasool may be sent in ummah of a previous Rasool, but when he reveals his resalat and constitutes a new ummah, he no longer remains an 'ummati'; because an 'ummati' has to follow all aspects of 'resalat' of his Rasool, but a Rasool having his own different resalat can't follow all aspects of another Rasool's resalat. Therefore every Rasool ceases to be ummati of another Rasool. A Rasool is he who establishes a separate  ummah; there can be no Rasool without his separate ummah, and no ummah without his  Rasool. (al-nahl-36; al-muminun-44, 52; al-ghafir-5).

 According to Quran, our Nabi’s ummah is last of ummahs. Quran, stating about non-believers among our Nabi’s (saw) ummah, in Sura al-araf says:

 “But the ones who deny Our verses and are arrogant toward them - those are the companions of the Fire; they will abide therein eternally (36).

“[Allah] will say, "Enter among ummahs which had passed on before you of jinn and mankind into the Fire” (al-araf- 38).

These verses tell that when non-believers from among our Nabi’s (saw) ummah would be thrown in the hell, they would be directed to enter into hell fire alongwith the ummahs passing before them; it means those non-believers among our Nabi’s ummah belong to the last ummah. If there would be any other ummah after our Nabi’s  ummah, those non-believers would not be thrown into hell fire alongwith previous ummahs alone; they would be thrown alongwith previous as well as latter ummah’s non-believers. It means our Rasool's ummah is last of the ummahs; and because ummah is always established by a Rasool, it means our Nabi is last of the Rusul/Messengers.

 From this discussion, we may infer that our Nabi (saw) is not only last of the  ‘Nabis’ but also last of the ‘Rusul/Messengers’. 

 We may conclude that our Nabi (saw) is last of Nabis and Messengers; he has been given complete ‘Deen/ guidance’ for the whole mankind to come; threrfore there is no room for any other ‘Deen’ or prophet to come in this world for the guidance of mankind.

Qadyanis don’t believe in this conclusion. Quran has given crystal clear warning to Qadyanis. Quran states: 

“How shall Allah Guide those who rejected Faith after they accepted it and bore witness that the Messenger is true and that Clear Signs had come unto them? but Allah guides not a people unjust” (al-imran-86). 

This verse sates about non-belivers who first accept faith and then reject it; and who also believe in truthfulness of our Messenger (saw). It may be noted that this verse is not about ‘munafqeen’, because ‘munafqeen’ are those people who never believed in truthfulness of our Rasool (saw), but this verse  states about people who believe our Messenger (saw) is  a true Messenger. Qadyanis cannot argue that this verse is about Muslims who don’t believe in Qadyaniat, because we Muslims have never accepted faith in qadyaniat but this verse is about people who first accept faith and then reject it; these are qadyanis who first accept faith by believing in our Messenger/ Rasool (saw) and then reject it by believing in Mirza's resalah. This verse is also not about any future so called Messenger ( coming after our Nabi (saw), because past tense (shahidu)  has been used in this verse, which means the concerned ‘Rasool’ of which witness was given has already come.