Seal of the Prophets
title used in the Qur'an and by Muslims for Muhammad
Seal of the Prophets (Arabic: خاتم النبيين, romanized: khātam an-nabīyīn or khātim an-nabīyīn; or خاتم الأنبياء, khātam al-anbiyā’ or khātim al-anbiyā) is a title used in the Quran and by Muslims to designate the Islamic prophet Muhammad as the main and last of the prophets sent by God. The title is applied to Muhammad in verse 33:40 of the Quran, with the popular Yusuf Ali translation reading:
Muhammad is not the father of any of your men, but (he is) the Messenger of Allah, and the Seal of the Prophets: and Allah has full knowledge of all things.
Term variations
There is a difference among the schools of Qur'anic recitation regarding the reading of the word خاتم in verse 33:40 – it can be read as either khātim or khātam. Of the ten qirā’āt (readings, methods of recitation) regarded as authentic – seven mutawātir and three mashhūr – all read خاتم in this verse with a kasrah on the tāʼ (خاتِم, khātim) with the exception of 'Asim, who reads with a fatḥah on the tāʼ (خاتَم, khātam). The reading of al-Hasan, a shadhdh (aberrant) recitation, is also khātam.
The recitation that has become prevalent in most of the world today is Hafs 'an 'Asim – that is, the qirā’ah of 'Asim in the riwāyah (transmission) of his student Hafs.
Hadith
Final brick metaphor
In a well-known hadith reported by Abu Hurayrah, Jabir ibn Abd Allah, Ubayy ibn Ka'b, and Abu Sa‘id al-Khudri, and recorded by al-Bukhari, Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj, al-Tirmidhi, Ahmad ibn Hanbal, al-Nasa'i, and others, Muhammad compared the relationship between himself and the previous prophets to a building missing a single brick. In Sahih al-Bukhari it is reported by Abu Hurayrah that Muhammad said, "My similitude in comparison with the prophets before me is that of a man who has built a house nicely and beautifully, except for a place of one brick in a corner. The people go about it and wonder at its beauty, but say: 'Would that this brick be put in its place!' So I am that brick, and I am the seal of the prophets" (fa’anā ’l-labinah, wa anā khātamu ’n-nabīyīn). This hadith is narrated with similar wording in Sahih Muslim, Musnad Ahmad ibn Hanbal, as-Sunan al-Kubra of al-Nasa'i, and Sahih Ibn Hibban.
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