This is Part 2 of following article below, where it is discussed how verses 3:81 and 33:7 states that while Muhammad was the final prophet, he is not the final messenger. Both verses state that all prophets (including prophet Muhammad) took a covenant with God in which they pledged to support and believe in a messenger who will come after them to confirm the scriptures that were given to them.
The article talked about how verses 74:31 and 72:27 informs the public that the identity of this messenger after Muhammad is Rashad Khalifa.
Messengers are Not Perfect
There is a common tendency amongst people to take advantage of the mistakes made by a human messenger to disbelieve him and claim that he is a fake messenger. The Quran warns in advance not to fall into this trap.
- [17:94] And nothing prevented the people from believing when the guidance came to them, except that they said, “Has God sent a human messenger?“
The same applies to Rashad Khalifa. One of the messages that he said God sent him with was that the Quran alone is the straight path. As a result, Rashad stated multiple times to disobey him if something he says does not match with what the Quran says. The following are a list of such quotations from Rashad.
“We are not following Muhammad, we are not following Rashad Khalifa, we are not following any human being, and don’t let anybody tell you that. I don’t follow Rashad Khalifa, and you don’t follow Rashad Khalifa. We follow the words of God. We follow God, you and I.”
“And if Rashad Khalifa says anything on his own, we don’t listen to him. We can listen and use our own discretion. But we do not follow what Rashad is saying, we follow what God is saying, you and I.”
“You do not follow Rashad Khalifa. We do not follow Muhammad or Jesus. We do not follow any human being. We follow God, we know that.”
“And as you know, I’m the first one to tell you: if it is my opinion, if it is Rashad Khalifa, don’t follow him, because you’ll probably do the wrong thing. You must be sure you’re following God and following the word of God.”
“If I say anything that is not in the Quran, you tell me, ‘Get out of here.’”
“The criteria of obeying the messenger is: whatever he is saying must be in the Quran, must be backed up by what God is saying. If it’s not in the Quran, it is your obligation to disobey.”
“And we do not follow Rashad Khalifa or worship Rashad Khalifa, we follow what God says. If Rashad Khalifa says anything that is not in the Quran, you will be the first to tell him, ‘This is not in the Quran, why do you say that?’ And it is your duty not to obey him if it is not in the Quran.”
“We are going out of our way to destroy idols, not to make the idols. Our only god is God. And we have reached the conviction in our hearts that God alone possesses all power. We reached the conviction in our hearts that no saint, no prophet, no Muhammad, no Jesus, no Rashad Khalifa, no anybody, no one other than God can guide us.”
“We are people who know full well that no human being, certainly not Rashad Khalifa, can help you in anything except give you the message.”
“And we’ll go to any extent to make sure that we are following God and the word of God, and not following the words of any human being.”
“But we make it very clear, we follow Maalik al-Mulk, the Possessor of All Kingship. We follow only God. We follow only the word of God.”
Yet, people continue to use the wrong things he has said in the past as an excuse to deny his messengership.
For example, In 1985 (three years before he announced his messengership), Rashad has made a number of guesses about the future, such as King Fahd being the last Saudi king, in response to someone from the Saudi elite class attempting to bribe Rashad with money, and because of the Saudi Arabia’s rejection of Rashad’s invitation to follow Quran alone, denying very basic facts involving the Quran’s 19-based mathematical composition, and other perceived transgressions.
- I recall a Quranic study video in which Rashad said he wrote a book called “The Perpetual Miracle of Muhammad” to teach about the Quran’s 19-based structure, but some group of people from Saudi Arabia once forced his book to be sold out, then burned away all the copies of the book they purchased, even though he made sure to put “miracle of Muhammad” in the title.
Because of such actions by the Saudis, Rashad believed this was like declaring war on God Himself, thus he predicted God will make Fahd the final Saudi king as part of the punishment for the Saudis declaring war on God.
He didn’t say such a prediction was made based on special knowledge of the future, but the prediction was based on the “word of God” (Quran).
- “Based on the word of God, that He forsakes those who forsake Him, and humiliates those who declare war on Him, I herein predict that Fahd shall be the FINAL SAUDI KING.” (Muslim Perspective, mayo 1985)
- Of course, Fahd was not actually the final Saudi king. Rashad was wrong to make such a prediction.
Critics of Rashad mistakenly cite this as a “failed prophecy”, even though Rashad said he predicted it based on what the Quran says, not based on revelation personally given to him.
Rashad also predicted that if the governments throughout the Middle East (such as Iran and Saudi Arabia) mock and scoff at his official invitation to them to be part of his proposed “United Islamic Nation” (a worldwide “ummah” or community of people dedicated to following and teaching the Quran alone, of which every Quran-alone Muslim is automatically a member), then their governments will fall because the Quran in 11:38-39 says that God will mock those who mock Him, and give them a painful retribution, and verse 17:81 says falsehood will vanish and be replaced with the truth, and because 3:26 states that God grants and takes away sovereignty from whoever He wills. (Muslim Perspective, septiembre 1985).
- Rashad also predicted, based on verse 9:126, that if governments whom he invited to be a part of the United Islamic Nation rejected his offer, they will be replaced, and fall at a rate of three governments every two years.
Why did Rashad predict the United Islamic Nation then? Rashad believed, through his efforts as messenger, that God will guide most of the Muslim world one day to accept the clear evidence and follow the Quran alone.
- A few Quranic verses state that God will “manifest” Islam over all other religions, and since true Islam is through the Quran alone, Rashad believed this means Quran-alone Islam will one day be the primary form of Islam that Muslims will follow. Consequently, he believed that the Muslim world will unite together and form a new nation known as “United Islamic Nation” whose laws are based only on Quranic principles like peace, love, freedom, justice, etc.
- The Quran also highlights example of certain people who got destroyed for denying the messenger and rejecting the message. Therefore, Rashad believed that if the Muslim world denied his message of returning to the Quran alone and joining the United Islamic Nation, they would be destroyed.
He explicitly denied special knowledge about the future, saying that God gave the world glimpses into the future in the final message (Quran), and that Rashad’s predictions are only based on what is in the Quran:
- “THESE ARE GOD’S PROPHESIES AND DECREES IN HIS FINAL MESSAGE. Despite these clear assertions, we expect the enemies of God to exhibit total blindness and declare that we are fortelling the future. ONLY GOD KNOWS THE FUTURE. AND HE HAS GIVEN THE WORLD CERTAIN GLIMPSES INTO THE FUTURE. It is NOT we who foretelling the future.” (Muslim Perspective, septiembre 1985 edition)
He should have instead followed the instruction given in the Quran, which says:
- [72:25] Say, “I do not know if what you are promised is near, or if my Lord will appoint a distant term for it.”
The Quran promises that certain things will happen, but we do not know how they will happen. That is why Rashad was wrong to predict how God’s promises in the Quran would come true.
- Rather than make his own predictions, he should have said, “I do not know how, when, or if God will punish the Muslims in this world for disbelieving and disobeying me. I do not know how, when, or if God will unite the people to follow the Quran alone.”
This is also exactly why anything beyond whatever revelation Rashad was given to convey is his own understanding, and his own understanding or independent reasoning (known as ijtihad in Arabic) is not guaranteed perfection. But that does not make the man any less of a messenger, and this is something that Muslims have to accept.
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