# Why can't there be any prophets after Muhammad? *Why prophethood ended with Muhammad: Ibrahim, the axial age and world faiths* - URL: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/1zghntbmpis/s/16/ - Date: 2021-01-12 · Kind: question · Transcript tier: machine · Recording: Monday Nights with Mufti #197 | Q&A Unscripted & Unrestricted! 😉 | Mufti Abu Layth (1:06:52–1:13:01) - Status: general teaching - Watch from the start of the segment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zgHntbMPis&t=4012s - Recording page: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/1zghntbmpis/ **Topics:** Prophethood and miracles; Individual hadith explained **Question as asked:** If Muhammad saw prophethood in his son Ibrahim, then shouldn't it theoretically be possible for future prophets? Why would Allah stop revelation and stop talking to us? **Summary (not a quotation; machine-made, unchecked):** Mufti Abu Layth says no new prophet or world religion will come after Muhammad; the statement about his son Ibrahim, if true, was hyperbole. **Checked position (checked by two independent reviews, not by the channel):** Mufti Abu Layth says the statement that the Prophet's son Ibrahim would have been a prophet had he lived is, if true, hyperbole. **Evidence, his words at 1:07:32:** “would have been a prophet if true is simply an a kind of hype it's hyperbole it's a hyperbolic statement” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zgHntbMPis&t=4052s) ## Longer summary Returning to the super chat, Mufti Abu Layth says he does not think the Prophet's son Ibrahim was going to be a prophet, and that the statement that he would have been had he lived is, if true, hyperbole meaning he would have been a beacon of guidance. On why prophecy stops, he speaks of epochs of collective consciousness: what he attributes to Karl Popper as the axial age, with the Buddha, Confucius, Socrates and Plato, followed by an epoch from Jesus to the Prophet in which religion was concretised. He says it is a fact of history that no world faith has risen since, that Sikhism is not a world faith, and that even Yuval Noah Harari, author of Sapiens, says none will. He concludes that the Prophet was the final seal on global religions, and, to a chat suggestion, says humanism is a philosophy, like a tint, not a religion, adding that he agrees with humanism. ## Sources and names cited - Ibrahim, the son of the Prophet - report: if ibrahim had lived he would have been a prophet - Karl Popper (as named on air) - the Buddha - Confucius - Socrates - Plato - Yuval Noah Harari - Sapiens - khatam al-nabiyyin (seal of the prophets) ## Transcript (machine tier, 1:06:52–1:13:01) [1:06:52] legend legend in poetry so where have we got to oh i forgot there was some uh people with some super chats so first of all let's take a look at prophethood you see i don't think ibrahim ali salaam sorry i don't think ibrahim the son of the prophet well when said ibrahim the prophet i mean ibrahim the son of the prophet who passed away at a young age i don't think he was going to be a prophet this statement that had have he lived he [1:07:32] would have been a prophet if true is simply an a kind of hype it's hyperbole it's a hyperbolic statement as in he would have been a beacon of guidance as though he is a prophet you know like a prophet in that sense so first of all i don't that that would nev that's not the case that he would have been a prophet now one may ask why not why does prophecy kind of stop prophethood and this comes back [1:08:11] to the kind of um collective consciousness and the epochs that it goes through you see there was an age it's like how karl popper had what he called the axial age which is before jesus about 300 years before jesus and it spans backwards for about 600 years that was what he calls the the axial age is what we can term a spiritual awakening a cognitive awakening age so it's this age where there's a lot of these kind of awakenings happening around the world you know you've got buddha [1:08:50] confucius socrates plato you've got all of these people it's it's not an age of religion but it's an age of it's an epoch of this kind of i'm saying spiritual but you can use that synonymous with conscious this conscious awakening this inquisitive conscientiousness oh [1:09:25] [Laughter] but this this kind of inquisitive conscientiousness then i would argue from the time of jesus to the prophet's time there was an epoch in which religion was concretized [1:09:53] now and i'm not just saying this we can look at this throughout history the prophet muhammed or dislike him whether you agree with him or disagree with him it is a fact of history that no global faith has ever risen [1:10:24] in a significant manner i don't mean a person may have there's been hundreds thousands of people who have tried but no world faith has ever risen sikhism is not a world faith it's restricted to a particular race and that and even when you look at it it's not even i mean they we do teach it in in schools in the uk as one of the six major faiths but it's not a world faith that has ever taken off and [1:11:03] even atheist or agnostic historians will state that as a fact so even you know in one of the interviews when um yuval harari is being asked the author of sapiens amazing book sapiens he is being asked that you know can you envisage a world faith taking off and he he even says no and no will after the world faiths like christianity and islam no world faith has ever emerged and it never will because that mindset [1:11:42] has disappeared from the world believe me when i say this that that epoch has long gone no world faith will ever come to the platform islam whether one agrees with it or not and the prophet muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam was the final seal on global religions so so this thing of living prophets after him i don't and we'll discuss a bit about that in a moment about saying omar as well but i don't believe that to [1:12:22] be true somebody said yes it will emerge humanism right okay so now this is different humanism is a philosophy and i agree with humanism humanism is like a tint so it will just fit on to different faiths and highlight those features or on no faiths or on science or on law or on anything it just fits onto things it's like a tint you have it is not a world religion okay so um and i agree uh [1:13:00] and i and i agree that islam is i feel at its heart humanist right so let's take a look at what were some of the other questions um right when is muslim gate coming out do you have chris do you have criticisms of sahih muslim yeah you see going back to what i said earlier on there's a reason why i went for bukhari ## Cite Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment 1zgHntbMPis/s/16. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/1zghntbmpis/s/16/ Not a fatwa: these answers were given to specific people at specific times. Ask a qualified scholar about your own situation.