The Witness to Come

Can he, then, who possesses a clear proof from his Lord, and to testify to whose truth a witness from Him shall follow him, and who was preceded by the Book of Moses, a guide and a mercy, be an impostor? (11:18)

Three arguments have been given here in support of the truth of the Holy Prophet Muhammad, may peace by upon him.

1. He possesses clear proof from his Lord
2. To testify to whose truth a witness shall follow him.
3. He was preceded by the Book of Moses, which testified to his truth.

The witness to follow the Holy Prophet is the Messiah and the Mahdi. As described in various traditions he would be from the followers of the Holy Prophet and would come at the head of the fourteenth century hijra. This prophecy was fulfilled in the person of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian, India (1835-1908).

Covenant of the Prophets: Believe in the Messenger to Come

In chapter Ale-Imran, Allah mentions a covenant entered by prophets, and through them, their people. This covenant makes it binding on them to believe in the messenger to come and to help him:

And (remember the time) when Allah took a covenant from the Prophets, (saying), ‘Whatever I give you of the Book and Wisdom (and) then there comes to you a Messenger, fulfilling that which is with you, you shall believe in him and help him.’ (And) He said, ‘Do you agree, and do you accept the responsibility which I lay upon you in this (matter)?’ They said, ‘We agree.’ He said, ‘Then bear witness and I am with you among the witnesses.’ (3:82)

In particular, this covenant related to the coming of the Holy Prophet of Islam^saw, whose advent was foretold by earlier prophets, but it is also a covenant relating to any future prophet. A covenant by a prophet is, in fact, a covenant by all his followers. When Messengers of God do come, they come to the people and it is the people who are tested in the fulfillment of the covenant taken by their prophets.

The question is whether this covenant was also entered by the Holy Prophet Muhammad^saw and through him, by his people? We see in chapter Al-Ahzab:

And (call to mind) when We took from the Prophets their covenant, and from thee, and from Noah and Abraham, and Moses and Jesus, son of Mary, and We (indeed), took from them a solemn covenant; (33:8)

Here “thee”, the addressee of this verse, is the Holy Prophet^saw. He is entering the same covenant as entered by the earlier prophets, details of which are mentioned in 3:82 (above): that he would believe in and help the prophet to come. There is no other Mithaq al-Nabiyyin mentioned in the Holy Quran. Clearly the people of Muhammad^saw, the Muslims, are also bound by it. That “prophet to come” is variously known as Issa (Jesus) and Mahdi in traditions. However, it would not be the same Jesus who was sent to the Bani-Israel some two thousand years ago. That Jesus has died and Quran is itself a witness to his death. It would be someone born among the people of Muhammad^saw. He has metaphorically been given the name of Issa Ibn-e-Maryam (Jesus son of Mary) to indicate his remarable similarity with the earlier Issa. In one tradition narrated in Sahih-Muslim, the Holy Prophet^saw calls him Nabi-ullah (prophet of God) no less than four times.

Prophethood: An Ongoing Phenomenon

Allah chooses His Messengers from among angels and from among men. Surely, Allah is All-Hearing, All-Seeing (22:76)

Simple grammatical deconstruction is sufficient to understand this verse. The key word here is yastafi. The tense it is used in is mudari. Which is applicable to present and future and translates to "he chooses".

The next verse begins in the same tense, “(He) knows what is behind them and what is in front of them ...” Just like Allah “knows” in the present and in the future, so does he “choose” prophets among angels and men, in the present and in the future (as he did in the past).

Arguing that future is somehow excluded in case of Prophethood is banging ones head against a brick wall. Head will always come worse off and the wall will prevail. Verb in the form of mudari includes the future and there is no way around that.

It is another discussion as to what types of prophets have existed in the past and what type of prophets may come after Prophet Muhammad^saw, who is the Khataman-Nabiyeen (Seal of the Prophets). That subject is not touched upon in this verse.