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Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) reported that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “My likeness and the likeness of the prophets who passed before me is like that of a man who built a house and made it exceedingly beautiful and splendid, except that the place of a single brick was left empty in one corner. People would walk around it, marvelling at its beauty, and would say, ‘Why has this brick not been set in place?’ — I am that brick, and I am the Seal of the Prophets (peace and blessings be upon him).”

The message of Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) is Allah’s first and last message in the world, universal for all — black and white, Arab and non-Arab, Turk and Tatar, Indian and Chinese, African and European alike. Just as his God is the God of the whole world, the Lord and Sustainer of the whole world (Rabb al-‘Alamin), so too His (Allah’s) Messenger is the Messenger for the whole world, a mercy for all the worlds (Rahmatan lil-‘Alamin), and his message too is for the whole world. The Qur’an has told us of another most important characteristic of the prophethood of Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him): that this Messenger of Allah is the “Seal of the Prophets” (Khatam an-Nabiyyin). Allah, the Most High, says (translation): “Muhammad is not the father of any of your men, but he is the Messenger of Allah and the last (seal) of the prophets.” (Al-Ahzab: 40) — that is, with the coming of the noble Prophet the succession of prophets and messengers was brought to a close; prophethood will now be given to no one; those who were to receive it have already received it. For this reason the era of his prophethood was placed after all the prophets and will continue until the Day of Resurrection. Even the Messiah (Jesus, peace be upon him) will, near the end of time, come as one of his ummah.

From Adam (peace be upon him) to the Messiah (peace be upon him), every prophet and every messenger gave the glad tidings of the coming into the world of the “Prophet of the Last Age.” His prophethood and messengership, and the decree of the finality of prophethood upon him, had already been settled, even though his birth and mission came last. How well someone has said:
The prophets came, the messengers came;
the followers had gathered, so the Imam arrived.

The earlier prophets too, each in his own age, drew from the supreme spirituality of the Seal of the Prophets, just as at night the moon and the stars draw from the light of the sun, even though the sun is not visible at that time. In rank and in time, in every respect, he is the Seal of the Prophets, and whoever received prophethood received it stamped with his seal. This is also the meaning of this blessed hadith: with the coming of the noble Prophet the edifice of prophethood was completed, and no place remained that would require the coming of any prophet to fill it. The succession of prophethood and messengership ended with him. Anyone who arises after him claiming prophethood is a liar and an impostor, and whoever denies this belief is absolutely a disbeliever and outside the fold of Islam.

He — the knower of the ways, the Seal of the Messengers, the master of all — who granted the dust of his path the radiance of the Valley of Sinai; in the eye of love and rapture he alone is the first and the last: he is the Qur’an, he the Furqan, he Ya-Sin, he Ta-Ha.