Do we need a Prophet in the 21st century?

AS and A Level Religious Studies & Philosophy

14th April 2004

DO WE NEED A PROPHET IN THE 21st CENTURY?

A prophet is a messenger of God sent to the people to guide them to the right path. In the past there have been 124,000 prophets. The first was Prophet Adam (pbuh) and the last is Prophet Muhammed (pbuh). All prophets had been sent to particular nation or tribe except for prophet Muhammed (pbuh) he was sent for the whole of mankind. Allah (swt) revealed the Quran through Prophet Muhammed (pbuh). Quran is the only holy book that has not been altered in any way. The Quran hold the message of Allah (swt) and all the prophets.

The need of a prophet arises when people have gone astray. People need prophets to clear the concept of God i.e. there is no God but Allah (swt) and tell us what is good and bad. If a person follows the Quran and the teachings of the Holy Prophet and his Ahlul Bayt he/she will never go astray. Prophet Muhammed (pbuh) was the seal of prophets and his successors were imams. Imam Ali (pbuh) was his first successor and the first Imam. Imam Muhammed Mahdi (pbuh) is the last imam and the seal of imams. He is alive and in ...

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I don’t think we need a prophet in the 21st century because if Allah (swt) thought we needed a prophet, Allah (swt) would have sent one therefore Prophet Muhammed (pbuh) would have not been the last prophet and he would have predicted the next prophet.

Prophet Muhammed (pbuh) had once said that when the world will desperately need someone to show them the right path Imam Muhammed Mehdi (pbuh) will come out of Ghayba with Prophet Isa (pbuh) and show people the right path.

There are many Ayatollahs/ Mujtaheeds who are the representatives of our last Imam and are there to show us the right path and to clear all our doubts. Every Shia chooses the Mujtaheed he or she wants to follow. Sunnis believe that the Quran is enough they don’t need the prophet and Ahlul Bayt as the Quran teaches them everything. That is not true because without the Prophet’s teaching we wouldn’t have known many things e.g. the Quran says about fasting from dawn to dusk but it does not say a lot about the thing that break the fast, we knew about them from the prophet.

The Quran and prophet Muhammed are equally important but we don’t need another prophet since prophet Muhammed has already said that our last Imam (pbuh) will one day come out of Ghayba and show us the right path. We just have to wait for that day as from that day onwards evil will be destroyed and the will have no more evil in this world.