Muhammad ﷺ — The Final Messenger

Before we begin, a small note on the symbol you will see throughout this page: ﷺ.

It is the Arabic phrase sallallāhu ʿalayhi wa sallam — "May Allah send His peace and blessings upon him." Whenever Muslims mention his name, we add this prayer. Allah Himself commanded it:

"Indeed, Allah and His angels send blessings upon the Prophet. O you who believe, send blessings upon him and greet him with the greeting of peace."

— Quran 33:56

So when you see ﷺ, that is what it means. Muslims have been saying it about him fourteen hundred years, in every nation, in every language, in every hour of every day.

That alone should tell you something about who he was.

The most influential life ever lived

In 1978, an American historian named Michael Hart published a book ranking the 100 most influential people in human history. He placed Muhammad ﷺ at number one — above Jesus, above Newton, above every other figure. Hart was not Muslim. His reasoning was simple: Muhammad ﷺ was the only person in history to be supremely successful on both the religious and secular levels.

He began his mission alone in a society that despised him for it. Within twenty-three years, he had transformed the Arabian Peninsula into a unified, monotheistic civilization. Within a century after his death, the message he carried had reached from Spain to China. Within fourteen centuries, his followers numbered nearly two billion.

But statistics are not why Muslims love him.

We love him because of who he was.

Before prophethood — Al-Amin

Muhammad ibn Abdullah ﷺ was born in Mecca in the year 570 CE — what Muslims call the Year of the Elephant, the year an Abyssinian army marched on the Kaaba and was miraculously destroyed before they could reach it. He was born an orphan. His father had died before his birth. His mother died when he was six. His grandfather, who raised him after that, died when he was eight. He was raised from then on by his uncle, Abu Talib, a respected but poor man.

He never learned to read or write. He never composed a line of poetry — which is remarkable, because pre-Islamic Arabia was a society obsessed with poetry, where the greatest honors were given to its finest poets.

He worked as a shepherd, tending sheep in the hills outside Mecca. He later said: "No prophet was sent who did not tend sheep." It taught patience. It taught care for the weak. It taught what would be needed for what came later.

By his twenties, he was working as a merchant — leading trade caravans to Syria. And here, before he ever claimed prophethood, before the first revelation, his society gave him a title that history rarely records:

Al-Amin. The Trustworthy.

Mecca was full of merchants who cheated, of tribesmen who broke their word, of leaders who looked out only for their own clan. In this environment, this orphan stood out so consistently for his honesty that the people called him Al-Amin — and As-Sadiq, the Truthful — as nicknames he carried throughout the city.

When disputes arose over the placement of the Black Stone during a renovation of the Kaaba, the rival tribes — on the brink of bloodshed — agreed to let the next man who walked through the gate settle the matter. It was Muhammad ﷺ. He was already known across Mecca as the one who would judge fairly.

This is critical context. Before he ever spoke of revelation, before he ever called anyone to Islam, his enemies could not deny his honesty. When he later began preaching, even those who rejected his message did not deny that he himself was truthful. They simply could not accept what he was saying.

How Allah chose him

The Quran tells us that prophets were not self-appointed. Allah selected them. Of Muhammad ﷺ specifically, Allah said:

"Allah knows best where to place His message."

— Quran 6:124

Why did Allah choose this particular man?

The Quran and the wider tradition give us several reasons.

He was the descendant of Prophet Ibrahim (Abraham)

When Prophet Ibrahim ﷺ rebuilt the Kaaba with his son Ismail (Ishmael) — the ancestor of the Arabs — he made a specific du'a recorded in the Quran:

"Our Lord, raise up among them a messenger from themselves, who will recite to them Your verses, teach them the Book and Wisdom, and purify them."

— Quran 2:129

The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ later said: "I am the answer to the prayer of my father Ibrahim." He was the fulfillment of a promise made thousands of years before.

He was foretold in earlier scriptures

The Quran states that the People of the Book — Jews and Christians — recognized the description of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ in their own scriptures "as they recognize their own sons" (Quran 2:146). Some of those descriptions, the Quran says, survived. Others were obscured or altered over time.

Multiple companions of the Prophet ﷺ were initially Jewish or Christian scholars who recognized him from their scriptures and embraced Islam — including Salman al-Farisi, a Persian who had searched through Christian monasteries for the promised final prophet, and Abdullah ibn Salam, a respected rabbi of Medina.

He was prepared his entire life for the role

Look at his preparation in hindsight: born an orphan (so he would understand the vulnerable), raised in poverty (so he would understand the poor), tending sheep (so he would learn patience), traveling as a merchant (so he would see the wider world), trusted by his society (so when revelation came, even his enemies could not honestly call him a liar). Married for twenty-five years to a strong, faithful, businesswoman who supported him completely (so he would have an unshakable foundation for what was coming).

Every detail of his life before age forty was forming the man who would receive the heaviest responsibility ever given to a human being.

His character matched the message

The Quran is the speech of Allah. The Prophet ﷺ was the living embodiment of it. When his wife Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her) was asked about his character, she answered:

"His character was the Quran."

— Sahih Muslim

He didn't just deliver the message. He was the message walking. You could see what Allah was asking of humanity by simply watching how Muhammad ﷺ lived.

The first revelation

He was forty years old. He had withdrawn to a cave called Hira in the mountains above Mecca, as had become his habit — going into seclusion, reflecting on the state of his people, sensing that something was deeply wrong with the world.

And the Angel Jibreel (Gabriel) came to him.

"Read!" the angel commanded.

"I cannot read," Muhammad ﷺ replied.

The angel squeezed him with such force he thought his life would end. Then released him, and said again: "Read!"

"I cannot read."

Again the squeezing. Three times. And then:

"Read in the name of your Lord who created. Created man from a clinging substance. Read, and your Lord is the most generous. Who taught by the pen. Taught man that which he knew not."

— Quran 96:1-5

The first command of the Quran was: Read.

He returned home trembling, terrified, telling his wife Khadijah: "Cover me, cover me." He thought he was losing his mind. She wrapped him, calmed him, and said something extraordinary:

"By Allah, Allah will never disgrace you. You keep good relations with your kin, you carry the burden of the weak, you spend on the destitute, you serve your guests generously, and you assist those struck by calamity."

— Sahih al-Bukhari

She listed his character. She knew that a man like this would not be abandoned by his Lord. She became the first Muslim.

The character we follow

This is the core of why Muslims love him so deeply. It is not just that he received revelation. It is the man he was, in every detail of life that we have preserved.

He was the most merciful

He freed slaves — including his beloved companion Bilal, a Black man enslaved in Mecca, who became the first muezzin of Islam. The Prophet ﷺ said about him: "Bilal is a man from the people of Paradise."

He was kind to animals to a degree that astonished his society. He stopped his army to allow a mother dog to nurse her puppies in peace. He freed a camel that had been kept thirsty and ordered its owner to fear Allah. He said: "A woman entered Hellfire because she imprisoned a cat until it died of hunger. And a prostitute was forgiven because she gave water to a thirsty dog."

He treated children with extraordinary tenderness — letting his granddaughter Umama climb on his shoulders during prayer. Once, a desert Arab who saw the Prophet ﷺ kissing his grandchildren said with astonishment, "I have ten children, and I have never kissed any of them." The Prophet ﷺ replied: "What can I do for you if Allah has removed mercy from your heart?"

He was the most just

He had legal authority over an entire nation by the end of his life. He used it for justice, not for personal advantage. When his own daughter Fatimah was hypothetically discussed in the context of a punishment for theft, he said:

"By Allah, if Fatimah, the daughter of Muhammad, were to steal, I would cut off her hand."

— Sahih al-Bukhari

The law applied to his family the same as to anyone. This kind of statement was unheard of from rulers of that era.

He was the most humble

He was the most powerful man in Arabia. He could have lived in palaces. He chose not to.

He lived in a simple house of mud bricks. He often went hungry for days. He repaired his own sandals, patched his own clothes, milked his own goats. He ate sitting on the floor with his companions, often from the same bowl. He greeted everyone — the slave and the chief — with the same warm greeting.

When he entered a gathering, he sat wherever there was room — never demanding the seat of honor. Visitors to Medina who came looking for "the messenger of Allah" often could not pick him out of a crowd of his companions, because he dressed and acted no differently.

He was the bravest

He fought in battle himself — not just commanded from the rear. At the Battle of Hunayn, when his army was overwhelmed by an ambush and began to retreat, the Prophet ﷺ rode his mule toward the enemy, alone, calling out: "I am the Prophet, no lie. I am the son of Abdul-Muttalib." His remaining companions rallied to him, and the tide turned.

His cousin Ali ibn Abi Talib said: "When the battle grew fierce and we feared death, we would seek protection behind the Messenger of Allah. None of us was closer to the enemy than he."

He was the most forgiving

When he returned to Mecca after years of exile and persecution — when he had ten thousand soldiers at his back and the city that had tortured his followers, killed his uncle, and tried to assassinate him lay defenseless before him — he addressed the people who had done all of it:

"What do you think I will do to you today?"

They said: "You are a noble brother, and the son of a noble brother."

He said: "Go — you are free."

— Recorded in multiple seerah sources

Not a single person was executed for what had been done to him personally. Not one. He pardoned them all, including the woman who had hired the assassin who killed his uncle Hamzah and then mutilated his body. The Quraysh — his lifelong enemies — embraced Islam in droves that day.

This is mercy at a level history rarely records.

He honored women

In a society where female infants were buried alive, he taught: "Whoever raises two daughters until they reach maturity will be with me on the Day of Judgment like this" — and he held up his index and middle fingers together.

He said: "The best of you are those who are best to their wives, and I am the best of you to my wives."

He helped with household chores — sewing, mending, cooking — when it was utterly outside the norm of his society. His wife Aisha was asked what he did at home. She replied: "He served his family."

He took his wives' counsel seriously on matters of state. At Hudaybiyah, when his companions were despondent, it was his wife Umm Salamah's advice that he followed — and the outcome was one of the greatest diplomatic victories in Islamic history.

He was the truest worshipper

He stood in prayer at night until his feet swelled. Aisha asked him why he exerted himself so much when Allah had forgiven his past and future sins. He replied: "Should I not be a grateful servant?"

He fasted often. He wept when he recited Quran. He remembered Allah in every moment — entering and leaving the home, eating, sleeping, dressing, traveling, every transition of life was anchored in remembrance of Allah.

He was the most God-conscious human who ever lived. And this is why we follow him: because he showed us what closeness to Allah actually looks like in a human life.

Why he is the last

The Quran says it directly:

"Muhammad is not the father of any of your men, but he is the Messenger of Allah and the Seal of the Prophets."

— Quran 33:40

Khātam an-Nabiyyīn — the Seal of the Prophets. The final one. There will be no other prophet after him until the return of Jesus at the end of times — and Jesus will return not with a new message, but to affirm Islam.

Why? Why does prophethood end?

The Quran itself answers:

"This day I have perfected for you your religion and completed My favor upon you, and have approved Islam as your religion."

— Quran 5:3

Revelation ends because the message is complete.

The earlier prophets came to specific peoples for specific eras. Moses to the Children of Israel. Jesus to the Israelites of his time. Each prophet brought a message suited to his people and his moment.

The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ was sent to all of humanity, for all time.

"We have not sent you except as a mercy to the worlds."

— Quran 21:107

"Say: O humankind, indeed I am the Messenger of Allah to all of you."

— Quran 7:158

The message he brought addresses the entire human condition — for every era, every culture, every level of civilization. The Quran does not need to be updated because human nature does not change. The struggle between truth and falsehood, between submission to God and submission to one's desires, is the same in every century.

And critically: the Quran has been preserved. Earlier scriptures, Muslims believe, were given to specific peoples who were responsible for guarding them — and over time, human hands altered them. The Quran was given to all humanity, and Allah Himself took responsibility for its preservation:

"Indeed, it is We who sent down the Reminder, and indeed, We will be its guardian."

— Quran 15:9

A preserved final message, sent to all humanity, addressing all of human life — there is no need for another prophet. He ﷺ closed the door behind him because nothing more needed to come through.

This is also why anyone who claims to be a new prophet after him is — by definition — a false prophet. The Prophet ﷺ warned: "There will be in my Ummah thirty liars, all of them claiming to be prophets. But I am the Seal of the Prophets — there will be no prophet after me." (Abu Dawud, Tirmidhi)

The miracle that remains

Every prophet was given miracles for his time. Moses split the sea. Jesus raised the dead. These miracles convinced those who witnessed them.

The Prophet Muhammad's ﷺ ultimate miracle is different. It is the Quran itself — a book that, fourteen hundred years later, still stands as the central proof of his prophethood. It is a miracle anyone can examine today.

Consider:

• He was unlettered. He could not read or write. Yet he delivered, over twenty-three years, a book of unmatched literary beauty in a society that prized eloquence above all things.
• His enemies — the Arab poets and orators of his day — could not match a single chapter, despite the Quran openly challenging them to do so.
• The book contains scientific signs that were unknown in his time but verified by modern science: the stages of embryonic development, the expansion of the universe, the function of mountains in stabilizing the earth's crust.
• It contains historical accuracy about peoples and events the Prophet ﷺ had no way of knowing — the title "Aziz" for Egyptian rulers in Joseph's time (used for the official who bought Joseph), the role of Haman in Pharaoh's court (mocked by orientalists until archaeological evidence confirmed it).
• It contains prophecies that came true — the Roman victory over the Persians within "a few years" (predicted at a time when Rome had been crushed), the eventual triumph of the early Muslim community against overwhelming odds.

He performed other miracles too — the Splitting of the Moon witnessed by his people (Quran 54:1), the Night Journey and Ascension to Heaven (Isra and Mi'raj), food multiplying in his hands to feed armies, water flowing from between his fingers. These are recorded in authentic hadith.

But the lasting miracle, the one you can pick up today, is the Quran. That is what proves him to be a prophet across all generations.

What we owe him

The Prophet ﷺ said:

"None of you truly believes until I am more beloved to him than his father, his children, and all of humanity."

— Sahih al-Bukhari

This is not idol worship. Muslims do not worship Muhammad ﷺ. We follow him. We love him. We model our lives after him. We mention his name with reverence and prayer.

But we worship only Allah.

The Prophet ﷺ himself was the strictest enforcer of this distinction. He said: "Do not exceed the bounds in praising me as the Christians exceeded the bounds in praising the son of Mary. I am only a servant. So call me the servant of Allah and His messenger."

We love him as the one Allah sent. We honor him as the bringer of guidance. We follow his Sunnah — his words, his actions, his approvals — because in following him, we follow what Allah revealed.

"Say: If you love Allah, then follow me — Allah will love you and forgive you your sins."

— Quran 3:31

The path to Allah's love runs directly through following the Prophet ﷺ. That is why we study his life. That is why we say sallallāhu ʿalayhi wa sallam every time his name is mentioned. That is why his name is recited in every call to prayer, every prayer itself, every sermon, every nikah, every funeral — five times a day, in every masjid on earth, for fourteen hundred years.

We are not worshipping him. We are remembering — with profound gratitude — the man through whom the final message came.

A glimpse of his appearance

His companions described him in detail, because they knew future generations would want to know.

He was of medium height — neither tall nor short. He had a wide forehead, a slightly aquiline nose, and a beard. His eyes were large and dark, with a slight redness in the whites. His teeth were slightly spaced, and when he smiled, his face lit up "like the moon," as his companions described it. His skin was a rosy white. He had black hair that fell past his earlobes, sometimes braided. He walked with purpose — "as if descending a slope," one companion said — never sauntering or strutting.

His sweat smelled sweet, like musk. He was always clean. He brushed his teeth with a siwak multiple times a day — promoting an oral hygiene practice that the medical world only adopted centuries later.

When he spoke, he spoke clearly and not too quickly, "such that one could count his words if they wished." He often repeated important things three times so they would be remembered. He smiled often. He rarely laughed out loud — his laughter was usually a quiet smile.

This is the man Muslims have been trying to emulate for fourteen hundred years. Down to how he ate, drank, slept, prayed, spoke, dressed, walked, traveled, and treated every person and animal he encountered. Not because he was God — he was emphatically not — but because he was the most perfect human being who ever lived, and Allah chose him as the example for all of humanity.

The farewell

In the final year of his life, the Prophet ﷺ performed Hajj. On the plain of Arafat, he delivered his Farewell Sermon to over a hundred thousand Muslims gathered around him. Among his words:

"All humankind are from Adam and Eve. An Arab has no superiority over a non-Arab, nor a non-Arab over an Arab. A white person has no superiority over a black person, nor a black person over a white person — except in piety and good action."

This was 632 CE. Fourteen hundred years before the world would begin to truly reckon with racism.

He continued: "O people, listen to me carefully — for I do not know whether after this year I shall ever meet you again."

It was a final goodbye. He returned to Medina. Months later, he passed away in the home of his beloved wife Aisha, his head resting in her lap.

His final words, repeated softly, were: "Allahumma ar-Rafiq al-A'la" — "O Allah, the Highest Companion."

He was making his way home.

What this asks of you

If you are a non-Muslim reading this and you have never been told who this man really was — you have just been told. You have heard, briefly, about a life so complete, so honest, so consistent that two billion human beings across fourteen centuries have organized their entire existence around following his example.

Examine his life. Read what his enemies admitted about him. Read the Quran, knowing it came through him. And ask yourself the question that millions before you have asked:

If he was not who he claimed to be — a prophet of the One God — then who exactly was he? An impostor who fooled the entire Arabian peninsula and then the world? A liar so consistent that even his closest enemies could not catch him in a single dishonesty? A schemer who lived in poverty while his "scheme" reaped him nothing but suffering?

The Quran asks the question directly:

"Say: Sufficient is Allah as a witness between me and you. He knows what is in the heavens and the earth. And those who believe in falsehood and disbelieve in Allah — those are the losers."

— Quran 29:52

If you are a Muslim reading this and you realized your love for him is shallower than it should be — there is a beautiful work ahead of you. Begin with his seerah. Read the authentic accounts of his life. Send blessings on him often — every time you hear his name, every Friday especially, in the quiet moments of your day. The Prophet ﷺ said: "The one who is closest to me on the Day of Judgment is the one who sent the most blessings upon me."

We will be with him, Allah willing. We will see his face. We will be honored to drink from his hand at the Pond of Kawthar. We will follow him into Paradise.

May Allah make us of those who love him truly — and may Allah send His peace and blessings upon him, his family, his companions, and all those who follow him until the end of time.

Allāhumma salli ʿalā Muhammadin wa ʿalā āli Muhammad.

Further study: There is no substitute for returning directly to the Quran and the authentic Sunnah. For the seerah (life of the Prophet ﷺ), the classical works of Ibn Ishaq, Ibn Hisham, and Ibn Kathir are foundational. For his character (shamāʾil), the work of Imam at-Tirmidhi (Shamā'il al-Muhammadiyya) is widely studied. The hadith collections of Bukhari and Muslim contain thousands of authentic narrations about his words and actions. Ibn al-Qayyim's Zād al-Maʿād is among the most beloved works on his way of life. We will be publishing additional articles on his seerah, his character, and his teachings in shā' Allāh.