This one is asked carefully, because people hold strong views on both sides of it. So everything here is a verse, and nothing here is a ruling.
Who the Lord God, in the Recitation, says he is
It says he is a messenger, and it says it in a way that leaves no room for him to be more than that.
Muhammad is not but a messenger. Messengers have passed on before him. So if he was to die or be killed, would you turn back on your heels?
He is called the unlettered prophet, sent to all people. Those who follow him are told to believe in The God and in His words (The Recitation 7:157–158). The same sign says he is found written in what they have of the Torah and the Gospel. It says he tells people to do right and forbids wrong, and that he lifts burdens off them (The Recitation 7:157).
Another says he was sent only as a mercy to the worlds (The Recitation 21:107). Another describes his companions as merciful among themselves and marked by prostration. It says their description is in the Torah and in the Gospel (The Recitation 48:29).
Mohammed is spelled here the way we spell it; the translations quoted spell it their own way, and we leave a quotation as it is.
The one the Gospel preached by the Messiah says is coming
On his last evening with his companions, the Messiah tells them four times that someone else is coming.
But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the “Father” will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and will remind you of all that I said to you.
The Greek is paraklētos, one called to your side. The World English Bible writes Counselor and the King James Version writes Comforter; both are on this site, and we write Counsellor throughout. It is one word.
He calls him "another Counsellor" who will stay with them forever, the Spirit of truth (John 14:16–17). He says the Counsellor will testify about him (John 15:26). He says it is to their advantage that he goes, because otherwise the Counsellor will not come (John 16:7). And he says what the Counsellor will and will not do.
However when he, the Spirit of truth, has come, he will guide you into all truth, for he will not speak from himself; but whatever he hears, he will speak. He will declare to you things that are coming.
The Torah has a promise of the same shape, made to Moses. A prophet would come from among their brothers, like him, with the Lord God's words put in his mouth (Deuteronomy 18:15–18).
Some read the Counsellor as the Holy Spirit poured out on the believers, and they read Acts 2. Others read it as a man who would come later, and they read The Recitation 61:6. Both readings have verses under them. We say what each one says, and we do not rule between brothers.
And the word spirit is not used of one being only. In the Revelation given to John there are seven Spirits before the throne (Revelation 1:4). They are held by the one who speaks to Sardis (Revelation 3:1). They burn before the throne as seven lamps (Revelation 4:5), and they are sent out into all the Earth (Revelation 5:6).
Isaiah has a spirit of wisdom, a spirit of counsel and a spirit of knowledge, resting together on the one to come (Isaiah 11:2). And the believers are told to test the spirits, because many have gone out into the world (1 John 4:1).
What a seal is
Chapter 33 gives him the title people argue about.
Muhammad is not the father of one of your men, but the Messenger of The God and the seal of the prophets. And ever is The God, of all things, Knowing.
The word is khātam, and khātam is a seal: the ring pressed into wax at the foot of a letter. Ask anyone, in any matter outside this one argument, what a seal on a document does, and they will tell you the same thing. It attests. It says this is genuine, it came from who it says it came from, and nothing has been added on the way.
Some English translations turn this into a claim about him being the final one. That is the translators' reading and not the word in front of them. We do not carry it, because it says something the Arabic does not.
It also sits badly beside the rest of the Recitation. To every nation is a messenger (The Recitation 10:47). He sent into every nation a messenger (The Recitation 16:36). There was no nation but that a warner had passed within it (The Recitation 35:24).
And the Messiah was not killed. He was raised to Him (The Recitation 4:157–158), which is to say he is alive, and perhaps he may yet return.
So we say what the word says. A seal attests to what is above it. Nothing about a seal closes the Lord God's hand, and nobody has been told when He will send or to whom. We do not claim to know what has not been told to us.
A rule the Recitation gives about all of this
Before any of the arguing, there is an instruction about how to receive a messenger at all. The prophets themselves are put under it.
And, when The God took the covenant of the prophets "Whatever I give you of the Scripture and wisdom and then there comes to you a messenger confirming what is with you, you believe in him and support him."
The Children of Israel are told the same in their own words. Believe in what has been sent down confirming what is already with you (The Recitation 2:41). Chapter 5 says every community was given a law and a method. The racing is to be towards good, not towards each other (The Recitation 5:48).
Where this leaves us
- He is a messenger, and messengers came before him (The Recitation 3:144).
- He was sent as a mercy (The Recitation 21:107).
- He is the seal, and a seal confirms what is above it (The Recitation 33:40).
- The Messiah promised a Spirit of truth who would speak only what he hears (John 16:13).
- A message that confirms what you already have is not to be dismissed unread (The Recitation 3:81).
Read John 14 to 16 in one sitting. Then read chapters 93 and 94 of the Recitation, which take two minutes. Then decide nothing in a hurry.
Questions people might ask
Was Mohammed the Counsellor the Messiah promised?
The piece sets the two texts side by side and lets you read them. The Counsellor would not speak of himself but of what he heard (John 16:13). The Recitation says of Mohammed that he does not speak from his own inclination, and that it is a revelation revealed (The Recitation 53:3-4).
That sign says "he" and not a name, and we leave it as it is. We do not rule; we cite.
What does "Seal of the Prophets" mean?
A seal attests. Pressed into a document, it says that what is written above it is genuine. It came from whom it claims, and nothing has been added along the way. That is the word in The Recitation 33:40, and it is what a seal means in any other matter anyone could name.
It is not a word for "the final one". The Lord God sent to every nation a messenger (The Recitation 10:47), and the Messiah is alive (The Recitation 4:157–158).
Do we pray to Mohammed?
No. Nobody prays to him. The Recitation tells him to say he is only a man like you. What is revealed to him is that your God is one God (The Recitation 18:110). Prayer is for the Lord God alone.
