ABSTRACT
In the kalimah (word, statement) of faith, Muslims profess: ‘I testify that there is no god except the only God and I testify that Muhammad is the messenger of the only God’ (La¯ ila¯ha¯ illa¯ Alla¯h, Muh.ammadun Rasu¯l Alla¯h). Both parts of this double testimony are in the present tense: believers affi rm God’s continuing uniqueness and endorse Muhammad as his current envoy. The creed does not claim that Muhammad is God’s only messenger since Islam reveres all earlier prophets. Surprisingly, however, it does not claim his fi nality even though the prophetic offi ce is abolished after the Arabian Messenger’s universal mission (see Q:4:79; 21:107; 34:28).1 Belief in Muhammad as the seal of prophets (Q:33:40) entails that he brought ultimate truth and confi rmed it (Q:37:37). This controversial claim about the fi nality of prophethood defi nes and distinguishes Islam. It terminates divine revelation and implies that the prophetic offi ce is the optimal method for the divine tuition of humanity. The latter view is contested by Christians who proclaim that God teaches and reaches deeper inside the human condition via initiatives of grace, atonement and incarnation.
