Quran Declares: New Messenger After Prophet Muhammad

Salaamun alaykum, dear readers!

Most of us Muslims have an erroneous belief, that prophets are not necessarily given scripture, but are sent to convey some news or messages, while messengers are a class of prophets with the distinction of being given new scripture from God.

But the truth, based on the Quran, is the exact opposite.

All prophets (nabi) are a type of messenger (rasool) that are specifically assigned a scripture, while all messengers simply convey a message from God.

The angel messengers to Mary that are mentioned in the Quran, for example, didn’t receive scripture to convey to humanity, but gave one person (Mary) the message that she will bear a son as a virgin.

The angel messengers warning Abraham of the destruction of Lot’s people and to inform of the birth of Isaac did not receive scripture from God. So it is actually incorrect to say that all messengers receive a scripture or book from God.

[22:75] God chooses messengers from the angels, as well as from the people. Indeed, God is Hearing, Seeing.

[29:31] And when Our (angel) messengers came to Abraham with the good news, they said, “Indeed, we are annihilators of the people of this town. Indeed, its people have been wrongdoers.”

[19:19] He (the Holy Spirit) said (to Mary), “I am only the messenger of your Lord, for I may grant to you a pure son.”

Verse 3:81 itself clarifies this issue, saying that at some point in the past, before creation, God gathered all the prophets and took a covenant with them, saying that He will give all of them a scripture.

So verse 3:81 sets the record straight in defining what a prophet is, which is someone who receives a scripture or book from God.

Therefore, all prophets have received a scripture, and all prophets count as messengers because they deliver a message (a new scripture).

But not all messengers are prophets. There are messengers (rasul) who are not prophets (nabi). That is because while those messengers deliver certain messages from God, they do not deliver scriptures or books from Him.

The Quran states four times both Moses and Aaron were given the same exact scripture, to address the potential objection that, “Aaron, the brother of Moses, wasn’t given a scripture despite being a prophet like Moses too.”

The scripture was indeed revealed to Moses directly and not Aaron, but Moses and Aaron are considered by God as the official recipients of the same book, just like how the official recipient of the Quran is Muhammad, and the official recipient of the Injeel is Jesus. The official recipient of the Torah is not just Moses, but it is both Moses and Aaron, because God in the Quran says He gave the book to both.

[3:79] It has not been for a human being that God may give the Book, the wisdom, and prophethood to then say to the people, “Be worshippers of me, aside from God.”…

[57:26] And certainly, We sent Noah and Abraham, and We placed among their offspring the prophethood and the Book. Then among them were acceptors of guidance, while many of them were deviant.

[37:117] And We gave the two of them (Moses and Aaron) the clear Book.

[21:48] And certainly, We definitely gave Moses and Aaron the Criterion, an illumination and a reminder for the servants.

[6:89] Those (all the prophets who were listed in verses 6:83-88, including Moses and Aaron) are the ones to whom We have given the Book, the wisdom, and the prophethood…”

[3:81] And when God took the covenant of the prophets: “Definitely, this is what I will give you (all prophets, including Moses and Aaron) of Book and wisdom…”

So in retrospect, we now know why the Quran says that prophet Muhammad is the final prophet sent by God:

If the Quran will be the final scripture,

and if Muhammad was the prophet who delivered the Quran,

and if a prophet is defined as one who delivers a scripture (verse 3:81),

then there will be no prophets after Muhammad.

Messenger of the Covenant

So there is an interesting question to think about: is Muhammad the last messenger?

The answer is no, Muhammad is not the last messenger.

He is the final prophet, but we know he is not the last messenger because the Quran explicitly says that a messenger will come after him.

The messenger that has come to the people after prophet Muhammad will not be a prophet himself.

The Covenant

In verses 3:81 and 33:7 of the Quran, it is stated that at some point, God gathered all of the prophets (including the prophet Muhammad) and made a covenant with every single one of them at once.

At some point in history, likely before creation when all of the Children of Adam took a covenant with God before being sent to Earth (verses 36:60, 7:172), God put aside all the individuals that were destined to be prophets and took a separate covenant with them.

God began the covenant with every single prophet together by explaining to the prophets that God will give each of them a scripture during their time on Earth to practice and teach others God’s religion, then afterwards a messenger will come to all of the prophets, who is destined to someday provide the ultimate confirmation of all scriptures that were sent down with the prophets.

According to the covenant in 3:81, all prophets are required to pledge their support to this future messenger when he comes to meet them.

[3:81] And when God took the covenant of the prophets: “Definitely, this is what I will give you (all prophets, including Muhammad) of Book and wisdom. Then a messenger will come to you (all prophets, including Muhammad) as one who will confirm what is with you (the scriptures). Definitely, you (all prophets, including Muhammad) shall indeed believe in him and support him.” He said, “Have you agreed and accepted that, My heavy responsibility?” They (all prophets, including Muhammad) said, “We have agreed.” He said, “So bear witness, and I am with you among the witnesses.

So as you can see, in verse 3:81 God is talking to all of the prophets, including Muhammad. This verse saying that God will give them a Book to teach, then a messenger will come afterwards to all of those prophets, and all the prophets must pledge their support to him.

Of course, the word “then” (thumma in Arabic) indicates this messenger will come sometime after every single prophet delivers his scripture and pass away. This means God will take the soul of this messenger all the way up to meet all the prophets in the afterlife, including the prophet Muhammad.

It’s kind of like the ascension of prophet Muhammad, when he was taken up to the highest possible boundary and saw the lote tree.

After this future messenger meets all the prophets, his soul will come back to earth so that he can complete the mission in verse 3:81.

The duty of this future messenger according to verse 3:81 is to provide the ultimate confirmation or proof of all the scriptures that were given to the prophets, including the Quran that was given to prophet Muhammad.

The Quran, in Surah 33, further clarifies that even the prophet Muhammad took this covenant. That means, like all the other prophets, he too agreed to support a messenger who will one day confirm his scripture (the Quran) as the truth.

[33:7] And when We took from the prophets their covenant—including from you (Muhammad), Noah, Abraham, Moses, and Jesus, the son of Mary—and We took from them a stern covenant.

So, verses 3:81 and 33:7 inform us in clear, straightforward language, that the prophet Muhammad himself took a pledge before God to support a messenger that will come after him, confirming the Quran that the prophet himself was sent with.

Verse 7:35 Suggests Future Messengers

Another proof that Muhammad is not the last messenger is that the Quran says in verse 7:35, while talking to “the Children of Adam” (all human beings, present and future) that if His messengers come to us, telling us about God’s signs, then we should listen to those messengers.

[7:35] O Children of Adam, if messengers among you come to you, narrating upon you My signs, whoever then reveres and reforms, there will thus be no fear upon them, nor will they grieve.

The present tense “come to you” and the word “if”, is used together verse 7:35, which means this is about an event that may possibly happen in the future.

For example, suppose that I say, “If Bob comes to you, then run away.” This means I am saying it is possible for Bob to come to you in the future, and I am telling you to run away if he does.

Also, this verse says, “Children of Adam” so it is talking to all present and future humans, including you and me. This verse will be valid for as long as any Children of Adam remain on Earth.

So that means this verse is talking to you and me about the possibility that messengers in the future will come to us, and to listen to them if they do.

To use another example, let’s suppose that King Salman was the last king of Saudi Arabia, and he tells the Saudi Arabian people: “O people of Saudi Arabia, if the kings comes to you to govern Saudi Arabia, you must accept them as your kings and obey them.”

Why would King Salman say something like that if he were truly the last and final king of Saudi Arabia, and that there would be no more kings after him? He is suggesting to the Saudi Arabians the possibility that there are future kings after him, which makes no sense for him to do if he were truly Saudi Arabia’s last and final king.

Likewise, if Muhammad were the last messenger, it would not make sense for the Quran to give the hint in verse 7:35 that there may be future messengers after Muhammad.

Hence, this is an indication that Muhammad is the last prophet, but not the last messenger.

God’s Warning: Don’t Act Like Joseph’s People

The Quran also tells us not to be like the people of Joseph, who kept mocking and ridiculing him as a liar and a crazy person even after the clear signs were shown to them, until when he died and they said there will never be another messenger to come after him.

[40:34] And certainly, Joseph definitely came to you before with the clear proofs, but you had not ceased—in dissent from what he came to you with—until when he died. You said, “God will never raise up another messenger after him.” Like that, God sends astray whoever is an excessive doubter.

So God uses verse 40:34 to tell the people not to say that any messenger is the “last messenger” without evidence. This applies to the prophet Muhammad. God calls whoever does this kind of act an “excessive doubter”.

Quran’s Precise Wording in 33:40

If the prophet Muhammad was truly the last messenger, God could have easily stated that Muhammad was the “khatam al-mursaleen wan-nabiyyeen” (seal of the messengers and the prophets) or “God’s final messenger” but that is not the case here.

Verse 33:40 just stated that Muhammad is “God’s messenger” and the final prophet.

[33:40] Muhammad was not the father of anyone of your men. But instead, he is God’s messenger and the seal of the prophets (khatam an-nabiyyeen); God is Knowledgeable of everything.

Of course, this doesn’t mean anything by itself.

But if verse 7:35 leaves open the possibility of future messengers, and verse 3:81 directly prophesizes a future messenger after prophet Muhammad, then it makes sense why God in verse 33:40 avoids calling Muhammad “khatam ul-mursaleen” (final messenger).

Quran Leaves Zero Room for Doubt

In short, the Quran is extremely clear on this issue and leaves zero room for doubt, saying that a messenger is for sure destined to come to the people after Muhammad who will be sent to provide the ultimate proof and confirmation of the Quran and all previous scriptures.

This messenger already came to all of the prophets to meet them, and all prophets agreed to support him, all according to verses 3:81 and 33:7, including Muhammad himself.

And just to add some additional context, “last messenger” is not something prophet Muhammad was widely known to call himself. There are many, many Hadiths in which the prophet Muhammad says he is the final prophet, but there are almost no Hadiths in which he declares himself to be the last messenger.

If you browse through the online hadith encyclopedia sunnah.com, there are only two Hadiths available out of the 50,000+ hadiths in the website in which the prophet Muhammad says he is the last messenger (Jami at-Tirmidhi 2272, Mishkat al-Masabih 5745). However, the other version of the Mishkat Hadith says the prophet Muhammad declared himself the last prophet instead of saying the last messenger.

Identity of the Messenger of the Covenant

So who is the Messenger of the Covenant that will come after the prophet Muhammad, according to verse 3:81?

The Quran contains the every detail and explanation that is needed guidance and mercy.

[12:111] … It (Quran) has not been a fabricated hadith, but instead, it is the confirmation of that which is before you, the detailing of everything, and a guidance and mercy for people who believe.

[16:89] …And We have brought the Book down to you as a clarification for everything, as well as guidance, mercy, and good news for the Muslims.

[7:52] And certainly, We have definitely come to them with a Book which We detailed with knowledge as a guidance and mercy for a people who believe.

Knowing the identity of this messenger is an important detail needed for guidance. If God didn’t leave behind any detail in the Quran to help the people identify who this messenger is, then the Quran would be incomplete and missing a very crucial detail, thus contradicting the three verses listed above.

Therefore, the Quran tells us exactly how to identify this messenger.

The two arguments from the Quran that confirms this messenger’s identity involves the Quran’s 19-based mathematical composition, which you can read about here.

The Quran’s First Argument

In the Quran, specifically verses 74:30 and 74:31, God stated that there are 19 angels who guard over Hell.

The Quran then stated God assigned “their number” (the number of the angels, which is the number 19) to do five functions:

Be a trial for the disbelievers,
Produce certainty in the hearts of the People of the Book (Jews/Christians),
Increase the faith of the believers,
Remove the doubt from the believers and the People of the Book.
Cause disbelievers to mock and ridicule the number 19.

Here are the verses in full:

[74:30] Over it (the Fire) are nineteen.

[74:31] We have made not but angels as custodians of the Fire, and We have not assigned “iddatahum” (their number, i.e. the number 19) except as: (1) a trial for those who have disbelieved, (2) so that those who were given the Book may attain certainty, (3) and that those who believed may increase in faith, (4) and that those given the Book—as well as the believers—may not doubt, (5) and that the ones who have sickness within their hearts—as well as the disbelievers—may say, “What did God mean by this example?” Like that, God sends astray whom He wills, and guides whom He wills; none knows the soldiers of your Lord except He. It is but a reminder for humanity.

These verses are saying that the number 19 will one day prove the Quran as the truth, beyond all doubt, causing many Jews and Christians to convert to Islam, and causing many believers to have a large increase in their already-existing faith (iman) and certainty (yaqeen).

The question now becomes: in what way will the number 19 prove to the world that Islam is the truth?

The number 19 is a future prophecy, just like the smoke, Gog and Magog, the splitting of the moon, and others are Quranic prophecies.

And all prophecies or future events are part of what the Quran calls “al-ghayb” (the unseen).

And the Quran states that God alone is the knower of the unseen, and He only makes the unseen known through whichever messenger he wants.

[72-26:27] The Knower of the Unseen, but He does not make His unseen obvious upon anyone except a messenger of whom He has approved…

So, if God wanted to make known to the world how the number 19 will prove Islam as the truth, beyond all doubt, He would only do through a chosen messenger. No other human being is permitted to find out this information before God’s messenger.

That means the human being who discovers and tells the world how the number 19 will perform its Quranic functions must be a messenger of God.

The human being who did that is Rashad Khalifa (b. 1935, d. 1990).

Therefore, Rashad Khalifa is God’s Messenger of the Covenant.

The Quran’s Second Argument

The Quran in verse 3:81 stated that this messenger will confirm as the truth, beyond all doubts, the scriptures that were sent down to all prophets.

That includes the Quran because the prophet Muhammad himself agreed to support the messenger of the covenant along with the other prophets (verse 33:7).

Okay, so the question is: how will the Messenger of the Covenant confirm the Quran and all past scriptures as the truth, beyond all doubts? How will we recognize the Messenger of the Covenant when he comes?

The Quran says it is fully detailed and complete (12:111, 16:89. 7:52, 6:115). Thus, such an important question is not left unanswered in the Quran.

So if we look through the Quran, we find that verses 74:30-31 tells us how the Quran itself will be one day confirmed as the truth, beyond all doubts.

So if the Messenger of the Covenant will one day confirm the Quran as the truth, it will be by doing the actions mentioned in verse 74:30-31.

If you recall verses 74:30-31, it says that there are 19 angels who will be guardians of the Hellfire. It also says that “their number” (the number 19) was made by God as a tool to bring certainty to the People of the Book (Jews and Christians), to increase the faith of the believers, and to remove all doubts from the hearts of both the believers and the People of the Book.

If the number 19 did all of the things listed in verse 74:31, then the number 19 effectively confirmed the Quran and all previous scriptures as the truth, beyond all doubt.

So if verse 3:81 says that the Messenger of the Covenant will confirm all past scriptures beyond any doubt, including the Quran, and if verse 74:31 states that the number 19 will be the tool to confirm the Quran and all prior scriptures as the truth beyond any doubt, then what does this tell us when we put 2 and 2 together?

This tells us that the person who uses the number 19 to confirm the Quran and all past scriptures beyond a doubt is the Messenger of the Covenant.

And who was the person to confirm the Quran as the truth from God with the number 19? That person is Rashad Khalifa.

Therefore, Rashad Khalifa is God’s Messenger of the Covenant, the one prophesized in verse 3:81.

Now that the evidence has been made clear, the only question is whether us people (and especially we Muslims) are able to kill our egos and accept what God plainly stated in the Quran, or whether we will turn ourselves away and dispute His words, and reject His signs?

In this way, the Messenger of the Covenant functions as a great test for the people, because it’s not easy for society to change their opinions on something even if there is clear evidence against it.

For example, if a society or culture grew up believing the Earth is flat, it’s not easy to convince people that Earth is actually round even if there are mountains of evidence.

We see this reflected in evolution today. Despite mountains of scientific evidence from genetics, scientific observations, the fossil record, and biogeography, for some reason only 74% of people worldwide believe in evolution in the year 2020. In some countries such as Malaysia, belief in evolution is at 43% of the population.

And shockingly, some surveys done as recently as in 2018 and 2022 find that 10-11% of Americans believe the Earth is flat.

So the reason for denial and rejection of the Messenger of the Covenant even by Muslims is not due to lack of evidence, but the psychological identity crisis caused by when the truth is radically different from the beliefs that one grew up with.

Who is Rashad Khalifa?

By all accounts, both public and private, he was a very nice guy. In fact, he is seemingly comfortable entrusting even his own car to strangers. Once, in the middle of a speech when certain audience members had to go to the airport, he offered his car keys and asked someone in the crowd to take his car and drive them to the airport.

Now, the interesting thing about the Messenger of the Covenant is that he is not a Sunni, although he used to be a Sunni until 1978 or 1979.

But since 1978-1979, Rashad dedicated his life to preaching the Quran alone, and Rashad said God informed him of his messengership during 1980.

The selection of Rashad as messenger is a more convincing argument against the authority of Hadith in Islam than anything I ever said in this gigantic article that I made explaining why to follow the Quran alone.

I almost question why I spent so much time giving a thorough, scripture-based argument on why the Quran should be followed alone when I could easily have said that Rashad being identified in the Quran as the Messenger of the Covenant is proof-positive that the Quran must be followed alone.

Here is some of Rashad’s contributions to restoring the correct teachings of Islam:

He restored the correct frequency of Zakat, that it must be paid on the day of income rather than yearly. I discuss the Quran-alone Zakat at length in this article.

He restored the four correct Hurum months as indicated by the Quran.

He promoted the worship of God alone, via the Quran alone, and authored the first ever English translation made from a Quran-alone Muslim.

He clarified the Quranic definition of prophet and messenger, and correctly debunked the concept of infallibility of any messenger or prophet using the Quran.

He unveiled Quran’s ultimate sign, the 19-based mathematical system.

There is much more that can be added.

Rashad’s Honesty

Being a messenger does not guarantee that someone is 100% perfect, and this is evident throughout the Quran amongst many of them, ranging from Abraham, to Moses, to Jonah, and even Muhammad.

One of Rashad Khalifa’s long-held beliefs since at most 1985, which many might disagree about, is that Gog and Magog (Yajuj and Majuj in Arabic) will appear in 1700 AH.

Why does he believe this? He said that God and Magog appear in the Quran in verse 18:94, which is 17 verses before the end of Surah 18. Gog and Magog also appear in verse 21:96, which is also 17 verses before the end of Surah 21.

So he believed this is the Quran’s sign that Gog and Magog will appear in 17 centuries after the Quran’s revelation, or alternatively, in the year 1700 AH in the Islamic calendar.

And he could have easily said that this was information which God directly revealed to him through Gabriel, if he was dishonest. But he did not say that.

Here is what Rashad Khalifa said during a January 1990 Quranic study session, one of his last recorded study sessions before he was killed later in that month:

“From the revelation of the Quran to the appearance of Gog and Magog is 17 centuries. Edip brought up the valid possibility that it may be 17 days before the end of the world, or 17 hours, 17 something. Obviously, it’s not relevant to us. If it is relevant, God will let us know.“

So Rashad could have easily said, “This is what God told me,” if he truly was a liar who is claiming to receive information from God. But in 1990, he honestly stated that God didn’t tell him anything about when Gog and Magog will come, and that maybe when it is important, God will reveal some information to hm about it.

Thus, he says the idea that Gog and Magog will appear in the year 1700 AH is his understanding of the Quran, rather than something God directly revealed to him.

This is definitely a sign of his honesty, showing that he was really a messenger, and that he is not trying to lie to the people about what he did or did not receive from God through the angel Gabriel.

What Makes Rashad Stand Out?

There are other claimants who said they were prophets or messengers, such as former mayor Joseph Smith, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, and others. Why believe Rashad Khalifa and not them?

Well, the Quranic criteria of prophethood is that Muhammad is the final prophet. Both Mirza Ahmad and Joseph Smith are automatically disqualified under this rule, as they claimed themselves to be prophets.

The Quran’s definition of prophet in verse 3:81 is that all of them were given a scripture to teach, but Mirza Ghulam Ahmad claimed himself to be a prophet without a scripture, thus he is disqualified.

Another Quranic criterion is that prophets and messengers do not ask for payment from the people in return for what they do. This disqualifies Joseph Smith, whose written scripture requires the church to make sure he is financially taken care of due to his status as prophet.

Another Quranic criterion is that a messenger or prophet must preach the worship of God alone, which disqualifies Smith because, like Paul, he claimed himself to be a messenger sent by Jesus Christ.

Another key criterion is the one from verse 4:82, which states that something from God cannot have many contradictions in it. But there are many contradictions in the revelations that Joseph Smith and Mirza Ghulam Ahmad claimed was sent to them. Failed prophecies attributed to revelation count as a contradiction with history.

Mirza wrote in his work Hammatul Bushra that, “I am not a prophet.” And in Izala Auham he wrote, “The door to prophethood is permanently closed. No new prophet can come.” But in other writings such as Tajalliyat-e-Ilahiya he said, “God has told me that I am a Prophet and a Messenger.“

Mirza Ghulam Ahmad wrote in Tazkira that, “God revealed to me that Muhammadi Begum will definitely become my wife.” But this never actually happened.

Mirza wrote in Hammatul Bushra that, “I will live for at least 80 years, as per divine revelation.” But he died at the age of 68, in year 1908.

Joseph Smith said in his book Doctrines and Covenants section 114 that God said David W. Patten will go on a mission “next spring”. This prophecy was made in April 1838, but David W. Patten died in October of 1938, before next spring arrived.

Joseph Smith, in volume 5 of History of the Church, prophesized in the name of God that if the U.S. government does not make amends for any of the wrongdoings it committed against Mormons, it will be overthrown and wasted in a few years, with nothing left of it.

In his book Doctrines and Covenants section 84, Joseph Smith said Jesus Christ revealed to him that a new city of New Jerusalem would be built in Missouri, with a new temple. But this city was never built because the Mormons were forced to flee Missouri due to persecution.

In Doctrines and Covenants section 87, Joseph Smith said he received revelation that an American Civil War will begin at South Carolina between Northern and Southern states, and this Civil War will escalate to involve all nations on Earth. He prophesized that Great Britain will come to aid the Southern states. While the Civil War officially did begin in South Carolina years later, it never escalated to a conflict involving all nations, nor did Great Britain come to help the South.

Unlike Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, or Joseph Smith, Rashad Khalifa never once claimed himself to be a prophet.

Unlike Joseph Smith, Rashad Khalifa consistently and unrelentingly preached the worship of God alone.

Rashad also said, when he announced his messengership, that, “I am not a professional religionist. I will never let a single penny enter my personal pocket from religious activities, because then the motive changes.“

Unlike both of them, whenever Rashad made predictions or guesses about what would happen in the future, he never said God directly revealed to him these predictions through Gabriel. He based his beliefs about the future only on his understanding of the Quran.

And lastly, the final criteria of all messengers in the Quran is that they have clear proofs backing them up. Mirza Ghulam Ahmad and Joseph Smith didn’t have any clear signs or proofs.

But Rashad Khalifa’s proof is that the Quran itself states that a future messenger will someday confirm the Quran and all past scriptures (verse 3:81), and verse 74:31 defined the mechanism by which the Quran will be confirmed beyond all doubts (the 19-based mathematical composition), thus letting us know that the messenger in 3:81 will fulfill his duty by using the number 19, which is in fact what Rashad did.

Mathematical Proofs

Now it’s time to shine a light on other proofs of Rashad’s messengership. The identity of the Messenger of the Covenant is not only provided in the Quran, but also encoded with the 19-based system, and the facts below are derived from Rashad’s Appendix 2 and Appendix 26 in his translation of the Quran.

Note that for any calculation that involves Surah 9, verses 128-129 were not included because they are false verses. If they were included in the calculations presented below, those calculations would be invalid.

The tri-letter root of “Rashad” is actually “ra shin dal”, and there are 19 total instances of any word having this tri-letter root in the Quran.

If you add all the Surah numbers and the number of verses where the root “ra shin dal” occurs, (so, Surah 2 has 286 verses and you add 286 + 2, and Surah 72 has 28 verses so you add 72+28, and you do so with every Surah containing this root) the grand total is 1368 (19 x 72).

The first occurrence of any “ra shin dal” root word is verse 2:186, and the sum of the verse numbers of all the verses from the beginning of the Quran to right before 2:186 is 17233 (19 x 907).

Let’s write down the Surah number, followed by the number of total verses from the beginning to the end of the Surah, followed by individual verses in the Surah from first to last, starting from verse 2:187 (the verse right after the first occurrence of the root “ra shin dal” in verse 2:186) to the last occurrence in verse 72:21. So the number would look like this: 2 100 187 188 189…3 200 1 2 3 4 ……4 176 1 2 3 4 ….. 72 21 1 2 3 4 5…21. It is a 11087-digit number that is a multiple of 19. This does not include the false verses 9:128-129.

So we can guess that the tri-letter root “Ra shin dal” has some special significance in the 19-based system. The following few facts will actually not involve the tri-letter root for Khalifa, but it will involve the instances where the actual word “Khalifa” occurs. The Quran’s 19-based system connects the root “ra shin dal” with the specific word “Khalifa” by the following facts:

The Surah numbers and verse numbers of all instances of the root “ra shin dal” and the word Khalifa is 1463 (19 x 77) The total for “ra shin dal” is 1369 (19 x 72)+1 while the total for the word “Khalifa” is 94 (19 x 5)-1. The “plus 1” for the root word “ra shin dal” and the “minus 1” for the specific word “Khalifa” indicates the different nature of the two objects being compared (one is a tri-letter Arabic root, and another is a specific Arabic word).

Let’s add the Surah number and the number of verses from all Surahs and verses starting after the first instance of the root word “ra shin dal” and going the way to the last instance of the specific word “khalifa”. The first instance of ra shin dal is in verse 2:186, so the verse that starts after this is 2:187. Thus, there are only 100 verses from verse 187 to the end of Surah 2, so we add 2 + 100. For Surah 3 we do 3 + 200 (the number of verses in Surah 3), and for Surah 4 we do 4 + 176 and so on, until we get to Surah 38, verse 26 (the last instance of the word Khalifa). This will yield 4541 (19 x 239). Once again, the false verses 9:128-129 were excluded from the calculation, otherwise it would have been invalidated.

Gematria is assigning number values to the letters of the alphabet, and back then, Arabic letters served as numbers since there wasn’t any 1, 2, 3, or 4 like we have now. The Gematric Value (GV) of Rashad Khalifa is 1230, and the following facts involve the GV of Rashad Khalifa:

If you add the GV of Rashad Khalifa (1230) to the sum of the verses of the 19 occurrences of “ra shin dal” (1145) you get 1145 + 1230 = 2375 (19 x 125).

If you add 1230 to the sum of the Surah numbers and total number of verses before verse 2:186 (so you add 1230 + 2 + 1 + 7 + 185) you get 1425 (19 x 75)

If you add the GV of Rashad Khalifa (1230) to the sum of the Surah numbers for each Surah containing a Quranic initial, the total is 822 + 1230 = 2052 (19 x 108)

Writing down the GV of Rashad Khalifa (505 725) side by side with the Surahs and verse numbers of each verse containing “ra shin dal” until reaching verse 38:26 (containing the word khalifa) it will look like this: 505 725 2 186 256 4 6 …. 38 26, and this long number is a multiple of 19.

The following facts involve verse 3:81, the verse which prophesizes the Messenger of the Covenant:

Adding the Surah numbers, and the number of verses, from the beginning of the Quran to verse 3:81 yields 1+2+3+7+286+81 = 380 (19 x 20)

The total gematric value of verse 3:81 is 13148 (19 x 692).

The GV of Rashad Khalifa (1230) added to the verse number 81 yields 1311 (19 x 69).

The number of verses (both numbered and unnumbered) that occur in between verse 3:81 and verse 33:7 (the covenant taken from all prophets is mentioned in both) is 3192, or 19 x 168.

The verse 36:3 translates to, “Indeed, you are definitely among the messengers.” Rashad Khalifa stated that in 1980 when he was first informed of his messengership. Gabriel told him that this verse specifically refers to Rashad.

Surah 36 happens to be the 19^th initialed Surah in the Quran.

If we add the gematric value of Rashad Khalifa (1230) to the gematric value of verse 36:3 (612), then add the Surah and verse number of verse 36:3, we get 1230+612+36+3 = 1881 (19 x 99)

If you add the Surah number of Surah 36 (36) with the total number of verses in this Surah (83) and the gematric value of Rashad Khalifa (1230) you get 1230+36+83 = 1349 (19 x 71)

From verse 3:81 (where the Messenger of the Covenant is mentioned explicitly, in the 3^rd person point of view), to Surah 36 (where the Messenger of the Covenant is directly addressed), there are 3330 verses, and if you add the GV (gematric value) of Rashad Khalifa (1230) to 3330 you get 4560 (19 x 240). This assumes the exclusion of the two false verses, 9:128-129.

From verse 3:81 to verse 36:3 there are 3333 verses if you exclude the two false verses 9:128-129, and if you add 3333 to the GV of Rashad (505) you get 3838 (19 x 202)

The number of verses from verse 1:1 (the first verse of the Quran) to verse 36:3 is 3705 (19 x 195), and the sum of the verse numbers is 257925 (19 x 13575), and both sums are attained by excluding the false verses 9:128-129.

The sum of all Surah numbers from Surah 1 to Surah 36 is 666, and if you add the GV of Rashad Khalifa (1230) and the GV of verse 36:3 (612) with that number, the total is 666+1230+612=2508 (19 x 132)

If we add the number of Surahs from the first instance of the root “ra shin dal” to verse 36:3 (35 Surahs), plus the sum of the Surah numbers (2 + 3 + 4 … + 36), plus the sum of the verse numbers from verse numbers from the first instance of the root “ra shin dal” to verse 36:3, we get 35 + 665 + 240695 = 241395 (19 x 12705). Once again, we get the sum by excluding verses 9:128-129.

Three messengers in Islamic history distinctly stand out. One is Abraham (the spiritual forefather who first was given the main pillars of Islam), another is Muhammad (who delivered the final Book of Islam, the Quran) and another is Rashad (who was sent to unveil the confirmation of the Quran and thus the past prophets and scriptures). Thus, all three are mathematically encoded into the Quran, not only Rashad.

The GV (gematric value) of Abraham is 258, the GV of Muhammad is 92, and the GV of Rashad is 505, and 92 + 258 + 505 = 855 (19 x 45)

Abraham’s name is mentioned in 25 Surahs, Muhammad’s name is mentioned in 4 Surahs, and the triletter root “Ra shin dal” occurs in 9 Surahs, which totals 38 (19 x 2).

If we add the number of occurrences of Abraham in the Quran (69) with the number of occurrences of Muhammad (4) with the number of occurrences of the root word “ra shin dal” (19) and the sum of the Surah numbers where all three occur (991) we get 991 + 69 + 4 + 19 = 1083 (19 x 19 x 3, there’s 3 factors and one of the factors is the number 3, which signifies the 3 messengers that are a part of this calculation).

Let us add the sum of the Surahs where the names Abraham and Muhammad, and the root word “ra shin dal” occur (991), with the verses in each Surah where Abraham, Muhammad, and “ra shin dal” first occur. In Surah 2, the verse where the name Abraham first occurs is 124, and the verse where the triletter root “ra shin dal” first occurs is 186, so we add 2 + 124 + 186. For Surah 3, the first occurrence of Abraham is in verse 33, and there is no occurrence of the root “ra shin dal”, and Muhammad’s name occurs in verse 144, so we add 3 + 33 + 144, and we do the same for the remaining Surahs. The total is 2793 (19 x 147).

If we add the sum of the Surah numbers where all three occur in total (991), plus the sum of the verse numbers where they occur in the Quran WIHTOUT repeating any of the verse numbers (so we add 2 + 4 + 6 +7…) we get 991 + 5488 = 6479 (19 x 341).

Idolization of Rashad Khalifa Forbidden

Rashad Khalifa advised many times that obedience to the messenger is only obedience to his message, and not the messenger’s personal opinions or interpretations of the message. Rashad tells the people that while he is a messenger of God, it is their duty to disobey him if anything he says is not found in the Quran.

“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.”

The Covenant Fulfilled

Rashad states that the covenant discussed in verse 3:81 was fulfilled on Dhul-Hijjah 3, 1391 A.H. Rashad mentioned in a 1988 speech that during this day, his soul was taken up by God to some unknown place to meet the prophets.

Rashad was told at the time that this event is currently not something he should be concerned about right now, but it is something that had to be done.

Then, he was shown a group of people and was informed that those were all the prophets God sent. They then came to him one by one and silently nodded their heads to show approval, then Rashad was sent back to Earth. Here is how he describes the event in Appendix 2 of his translation of the Quran:

During my Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca, and before sunrise on Tuesday, Zul-Hijjah 3, 1391, December 21, 1971, I, Rashad Khalifa, the soul, the real person, not the body, was taken to some place in the universe where I was introduced to all the prophets as God’s Messenger of the Covenant. I was not informed of the details and true significance of this event until Ramadan 1408. What I witnessed, in sharp consciousness, was that I was sitting still, while the prophets, one by one, came towards me, looked at my face, then nodded their heads. God showed them to me as they had looked in this world, attired in their respective mode of dress. There was an atmosphere of great awe, joy, and respect. Except for Abraham, none of the prophets was identified to me. I knew that all the prophets were there, including Moses, Jesus, Muhammad, Aaron, David, Noah, and the rest. I believe that the reason for revealing Abraham’s identity was that I asked about him. I was taken aback by the strong resemblance he had with my own family – myself, my father, my uncles. It was the only time that I wondered, “Who is this prophet who looks like my relatives?” The answer came: “Abraham.” No language was spoken. All communication was done mentally.

That incident, which took place during my pilgrimage to Mecca, was the fulfillment of Verse 3:81. That incident took place while I was fully awake, and I have shared the details with my family, my family of believers, and with my friends.

It is worth clarifying that there is a slight inconsistency with the dating. Dhul-Hijjah 3, 1391 before sunrise in Mecca is actually Wednesday, January 19, 1972. But Rashad remembers that day in Mecca as a Tuesday as per his 1988 Conference speech, given that his favorite Quran reciter at the time (Mahmoud al-Banna) used to recite the Quran live on radio at Tuesday mornings, and given that he says this happened while he was listening to al-Banna in the morning with his brother.

He recalls bringing 100 cassette tapes with him to Hajj, and telling his brother Atef (who eventually came to believe Rashad’s messengership) on that day to record al-Banna’s recitals with them. Thus, it is likely the actual date in Hijri calendar is Dhul-Hijjah 2, 1391, which was a Tuesday.

Rashad has previously admitted he is often not good at remembering dates. In a 1989 Friday Khutbah, Rashad admitted that he only recently found out he unveiled the Quran’s 19-based structure in 1974. He said that his son repeatedly insisted Rashad discovered the Quran’s 19-based structure in 1974, but Rashad didn’t believe him and thought his son was maybe a few years off the mark. When Rashad went through his old records, he found that his son was indeed right, that Rashad first unveiled his discovery in January of 1974.

The meeting with the prophets that Rashad experienced in 1972 marked the start of Rashad’s messengership, because the covenant in 3:81 says that a messenger will come to all past prophets as one who will confirm all previous scriptures. If Rashad came to them in 1972, then that was the day Rashad officially became a messenger, although he not told by God of his messengership at the time why this event took place.

He was not yet aware of the 19-based mathematical composition of the Quran in 1972, nor was Rashad made aware that he was a messenger until 1980.

In fact, it was in 1969 that he first started to study the Quranic Initials, and he states at the time that while the number 19 was frequently noticed during his study of Quranic initials, his main finding at the time regarding the Quranic initials (which he published in his 1973 book Miracle of the Quran: Significance of the Mysterious Alphabets) was that the letters of each initial occurred in the highest proportions in the Surahs that they occurred compared to other Surahs. Out of the 114 Surahs, there are only 29 of them with Quranic initials which nobody understood the purpose or significance of. Surah 50 is one of them, and it is initialed with the letter “Qaaf”. Rashad found that Surah 50 has the highest proportion of the letter Qaaf relative to other letters than does the other Surahs of the Quran, meaning it has the highest percentage of the occurrence of the letter Qaaf in its verses out of all Surahs, and it’s the same for every initial except Surah 36 (initialed with the letters “Ya” and “Seen”), which contained the lowest proportion of those two letters out of all Surahs.

It wasn’t until after he published the book in 1973 that he realized that maybe there’s something else that needs further research. He noticed a recurring pattern of 19 at the time when analyzing the Quran but didn’t think much of it when writing the book.

But as he re-examined the data after publishing that book in 1973, he realized that the letters of the Quranic initials seemed to occur in the initialed Surahs in multiples of 19, and then finally in January of 1974, the fact that a vast and complex 19-based mathematical system pervades the entire Quran became a reality to him.

Since the Islamic calendar is dated to the year the prophet migrated to Medina, the Quran was revealed in 13 B.H. (13 years before the Hijrah, or migration). If you add 13 + 1393, you get 1406 (19 x 74) lunar years between the Quran’s revelation to the discovery of its ultimate miracle. So there exists a connection between the number 19, Surah 74, the year 1974, and the fact that the Quran’s ultimate miracle was discovered 19×74 (1406) Islamic lunar years after the Quran itself was first revealed.

So, January of 1974 should be one of the most significant dates in Islamic history to have occurred, because that is when the Messenger of the Covenant in verse 3:81 fulfilled the prophecy in verses 3:81 and 74:31.

Rashad also started that even during the year 1980, while he was told that he was a messenger of God, he wasn’t told that he was the Messenger of the Covenant mentioned in verse 3:81. The explanation of verse 3:81 didn’t come to him until 1988, according to Rashad.

He stated, in his speech at a 1989 conference, that in 1980 he was approached by the angel Gabriel who informed him that he was a messenger. Just as Mary did, Rashad stated he thought the angel was Iblis, the devil/satan, and invoked God’s protection and refuge against the devil.

But after some back and forth discussion, Gabriel assured him that he was not Satan, and conveyed that Rashad was God’s messenger and that verse 3 of Surah Ya Seen is addressed directly to Rashad.

Afterward, Rashad resolved to just teach God’s message (the Quran), believing that there was no need to make the announcement, and fearing the ridicule and backlash he would receive even from his own friends and family whom he loved very much and wanted to be with in the Hereafter. He said, “I went on my merry way, saying I will preach the word of God alone.” So he resigned himself to just preaching the Quran, and never made a public announcement until 8 years later, in a Friday khutbah which was recorded on video at April 15, 1988, and is publicly available on YouTube.

He says in the October 1989 edition of his newsletter:

For eight years, I had maintained the same views as those who believe that an announcement was not necessary. I used to think: Why is the announcement necessary? Why not preach the word of God, uphold the word of God ALONE, and preach the worship of God ALONE, without announcing anything about the messengership? In those days of ignorance, I resisted making such an announcement. Finally, I was told that I was too coward to carry out the duties of God’s messenger. I was fired. It took a whole night of repenting, crying, apologizing, and pledging. When I reached a solid conviction that I must make the announcement, even at the cost of losing my own children and my best friends, I was restored. The following night, I spoke with my daughter during the pre-dawn meal of a Ramadan night, and I was trying to be as diplomatic as I could be. My daughter interrupted, “What are you trying to say, Dad? I knew all along that you are God’s messenger.” I received the same response from all the believers around me. They had known me for a long time, and they knew that I was not a crazy man. They realized that a person who lies about God or claims messengership falsely has to be a person who does not believe in God or the Hereafter; a person who does not expect to stand before God on the Day of Judgment to answer for his actions.

He stated that God accepted the repentance for his past 8 years of cowardice and restored his mission. He says in his May 1988 newsletter:

The recent announcement that I am God’s commissioned messenger to the world was NOT my idea. In fact, God Most Gracious has been immensely merciful towards me. Despite my cowardice for eight long years, God has accepted my repentance and my solemn pledge to (1) announce my identity as God’s messenger, and (2) never hesitate, hold back, or waver in declaring such identity. Thus, I can no longer afford to hesitate or be humble about this divine truth.

Rashad stated in a September 1988 conference speech that God told him about the covenant in verse 3:81, and how his meeting with the prophets that occurred many years ago was the fulfillment of that covenant.

The explanation he received from God in April 1988 was that when Rashad was taken by God to meet the prophets, God informed the prophets (who were in the afterlife) that the person standing before them is the one whom they all took a pledge to support before the creation, who will confirm all the scriptures they were given, and asked them if they approved of him.

Thus, when they all came to him one by one, nodding their heads, they were in fact expressing their support of Rashad in response to God’s question.

Fear of the Public

In fact, Rashad has told the story before about one example of his cowardice that occurred during a 1986 speech.

He said that he has long prayed that someone would not directly ask him, point-blank, if he were a messenger, because he would have admitted it and his secret would have gotten out. In the few occasions that someone asked him if he were a prophet, he would say no and respond that Muhammad was the last prophet. But no one asked him before if he was a messenger, and he wanted it to stay that way. He used to pray that no one asked him that question.

So after some heated back-and-forth discussion between Rashad Khalifa who was on the podium, and audience member Soussan Rey, she “let the cat out of the bag” and came to the conclusion that Rashad was a messenger of God.

Rashad suddenly went quiet after that, at a loss for how to answer. He said that Kathryn Kolton later told him that she noticed how quiet he was when Soussan asked him that. He said that what the audience didn’t know at the time was that he was praying very hard that no one would come to him afterward and ask him point-blank, to his face, because he would have said yes if that happened. Rashad’s lack of response caught the attention of many.

Rashad recalls Kathryn telling him that at the time, she overheard an audience member Ismail Barakat talking angrily amongst a couple people, saying he was determined to go ask Rashad after this event point-blank if he was a messenger. But to Rashad’s knowledge, Ismail did not ask him that question. So at some point during a speech, Rashad invited Ismail to the podium to explain why.

Ismail Barakat explained that the Quran-alone movement was supposed to be about destroying idols, not making new ones. Ismail recalled that in his understanding at the time, a messenger was someone who delivered a scripture. Rashad didn’t deliver any scripture to his knowledge, and if Rashad said he did, then he would be a confirmed liar. So he was very determined to confront Rashad point-blank and get a straight answer out of him.

But Ismail said, while swearing by God as his witness, that he was unable to open his mouth to ask Rashad that question. Rashad believes this was God answering his prayers at the time.

This shows that Rashad always avoided the topic of messengership like a flaming hot pack and never discussed anything about it, until he couldn’t hide it anymore in 1988.

Why Send a New Messenger If the Quran Is Complete?

Some people may question why God would want to send a new messenger if the Quran is already complete.

The first reason is because as you have already seen, certain prophesies in the Quran required a messenger after Muhammad to fulfill them.

The second reason is that if most Muslims are practicing and teaching Islam the wrong way, then it makes absolute sense for God to send a new messenger as a mercy to the people, to get them on the right track and to establish the truth that the Quran alone is the correct way to practice Islam.

Of course, given that the duty of the Messenger of the Covenant in verse 3:81 is to confirm the Quran, then he will not be receiving or passing on any information from God that is not already found in the Quran.

Rashad’s Message

So, what is the message that the Messenger of the Covenant was sent with?

His first and primary mission given by God was to confirm the Quran and all previous scriptures of God as the truth, beyond all doubts, as stated in verse 3:81.

Thus, Rashad’s main message to convey, as given by God in verse 3:81, is the Quran’s 19-based mathematical composition.

Secondly, from the very beginning of his messengership, God sent him to teach and follow the Quran alone. According to a close companion Edip Yuksel, it was in 1978-1979 that Rashad made the bold move to reject all Hadiths as a source of law and to teach and follow the Quran alone.

Then in 1980, shortly after his 45th birthday, Rashad was approached by the angel Gabriel, who took over his mind and told him, “You are one of the messengers. Surah Ya Seen, 3, applies to you.”

Now, if anybody is familiar with Surah Ya Seen, they would know that verse 4 is a continuation of verse 3. The two verses, when combined, says:

[36:3-4] Indeed, you are one of the messengers, on a straight path.

So with this revelation, the angel Gabriel essentially informed Rashad that he was on the straight path, and to keep doing what he was doing.

That means Rashad was ordered to continue following and teaching the Quran alone. That was his second mission as God’s messenger.

He also has a story about how God forced him into early retirement so that he could spend all of his time teaching the Quran alone. During a Quranic study session, one of the members said that during work, she and her co-workers were looking through past accident reports. She said one of her co-workers found Rashad’s car accident report from 1985.

Rashad stated that this happened because in 1985, he was told in advance by God to quit his job and devote his time to the message (Quran). However, Rashad didn’t immediately follow this instruction because he was unsure of how to provide for himself if he quit.

A few months later, on November 1985, at the exact same day that Rashad qualified for early retirement due to having worked for the state of Arizona for more than 5 years, as Rashad was entering the University of Arizona to go to work, someone crashed into his car and hospitalized him, and he did not go back to work since. He interpreted this as God telling him to finally do what was commanded and quit his job.

Beyond that, here are some additional pieces of information that God communicated to Rashad through the angel Gabriel:

When God informed him in 1980 that he is a messenger, and that verse 36:3 referred to him.

The command to announce his messengership in April 1988, and the temporary revocation of his status as messenger due to 8 years of cowardice, and subsequent forgiveness.

The explanation of verse 3:81 that Rashad received in 1988 after he was restored to his position as messenger, that not only was he a messenger, but he is the Messenger of the Covenant mentioned in this verse. God explained to Rashad that his meeting with the prophets in Heaven many years before was the fulfillment of the covenant in 3:81 about the messenger destined to confirm all of God’s scriptures.

The proclamation that all who die before age 40 will go to Heaven (the Quranic evidence of this, verse 46:15, is discussed here). Rashad said in Appendix 32 and in a Quranic study session that this was a specific piece of information given to him by God.

The message in September 1989 (four months before his assassination) that after Rashad dies, millions of believers will know that he represents the Messiah the Jews are waiting for, the second coming of Christ that the Christians anticipate, and the Imam Mahdi that Muslims anticipate.
- This is God’s way of telling Rashad that there is no real second coming of Jesus, nor is there any real coming of Imam Mahdi, nor will the Jews get another Messiah after Jesus. Rashad represents the Mahdi and the second coming of Jesus because the Messenger of the Covenant is the only person that the Quran predicts will come before the end of the world, not Mahdi, Jesus, or anyone else.

The message from God (through Gabriel) that Rashad received, stating that like the time of Noah, those who stand with God’s messenger will be saved, and those who refuse to do so will be destroyed.

A “new proclamation” from God that Rashad received, instructing people of all religions to “Purify, unify, consolidate your religions into one,” and instructing people of all religions to forget all idols and devote themselves totally to God alone. This message is discussed in depth here.

Shortly before he learned of his mother’s death in Egypt, Rashad was informed that the righteous people do not experience death, but they go straight to Paradise.

In Rashad’s final revelation, God explained details about the prophecy of the smoke, saying that a massive asteroid will hit somewhere in the Middle East, burning living organisms at least within a 100-mile radius, and causing immense devastation to the Arab world, as a consequence for their disbelief in him as God’s messenger. According to the prophecy that Rashad received from God, this will cause the resulting cloud of dust to cover the whole world and obstruct the sun for several months, and that Arabs will be mocking this prophecy in fulfillment of verse 17:92.

Quranic Verses Referring to Rashad Khalifa

Throughout Rashad’s translation of the Quran, he points out a number of verses in the Quran which God told him is either directly talking to Rashad himself, or the messenger mentioned in those verses in the 3^rd person point of view is Rashad.

Those verses specifically are: Verses 98:2, 81:19-24, 72:1-28, 61:9, 48:28, 46:35, 44:13, 43:43, 42:24, 41:43, 36:3, 35:24, 34:28, 34:43, 34:46, 28:44, 26:214-223, 25:27-30 (Rashad said this refers to Muhammad too), 25:56, 24:62, 22:49, 13:38, 13:30, 9:33, 5:19, 3:81, 2:252, and 2:119.

Some people may have a difficult time accepting that such verses are either directly addressing Rashad, or talking about Rashad. The traditional interpretation is that each of the aforementioned verses refer to Muhammad only, but Rashad stated in multiple Quranic study audios that while he is always embarrassed to say things like that, it’s not his personal opinion and that he cannot afford to be ashamed, shy, or modest about admitting something like that.

When discussing Surah 72 and what Rashad was told from God, he stated that the group of jinns who heard the Quran in this Surah refer to a group who walked by his masjid (Masjid Tucson) and heard the Quran there. These were former Christian jinns who used to believe God had a son, and attributed other nonsense to God. After learning about how amazing the Quran is and its 19-based mathematical composition, they became believers, continuing to attend the weekly Quran study sessions hosted by Rashad. Here is what Rashad said, when discussing Surah 72 during a Quranic study session, after stating that nothing in the Surah is addressed directly to Muhammad, but rather, it is addressed to Rashad himself:

“This is not my personal opinion. If this was my personal opinion, I’d be wrong. This is not my personal opinion.”

“I can’t afford to be embarrassed or ashamed or shy or modest.”

“And when I tell you this, either I’m a very, very bad person, or I’m really a messenger of God. Because nobody will fabricate lies against God and attribute it to God in this flagrant manner, unless he’s really, really a disbeliever who doesn’t think he will face God one day on the Day of Judgement. So take your pick, there are only two extremes here: either a very bad person who claims to be receiving information from God, or a true messenger of God.”

Rashad used similar words in Quranic study audio number 31, when discussing how verses 81:19-24 refer to himself, saying that, “This is, of course, very embarrassing to me, but I can’t afford to hold back any of this. It’s mainly for the future generations. Our generation may not be able to withstand this kind of news.”

He also said, “If you find that this is not acceptable, I don’t blame you. This is very difficult to accept.”

Rashad Khalifa Has the Same Imperfections as Prophet Muhammad

While Rashad Khalifa was a great human being in general, he possesses many of the same imperfections and flaws in his character that the prophet Muhammad possessed.

In short, Rashad the man is different from Rashad the messenger. And the truth is that Rashad the man has said some dumb and stupid stuff in the past, primarily in the year 1985.

Hence, this is why a Muslim should never idolize any human being like he is some perfect saint who never makes a mistake, even if that human being is a messenger.

In 1985, 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 and very basic facts involving the Quran’s 19-based mathematical composition, and other transgressions they have committed to try to stop people from knowing about the 19-based mathematical composition.

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 miracle, but a group from Saudi 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.

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, May 1985)

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, September 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.

So Rashad has made several predictions, not based on divine revelation, but based on his flawed understanding of the Quran, which did not come true (such as Fahd being the last Saudi king).

This is an unfortunate character flaw that even the prophet Muhammad had too. The only difference is that Muslims commonly use it to attack Rashad as a false messenger, while defending the prophet Muhammad when he is accused of wrongly predicting the future.

In Sahih Muslim number 2897, if this Hadith is assumed to be authentic, the prophet Muhammad predicted that the Roman Empire will have a battle with an army from Medina in the Syrian towns al-Amaq and Dabiq. He predicted that 1/3 of the Medinan army will then proceed to conquer Constantinople from Rome.

Of course, this is a false prediction because there was no battle in recorded history between a Medinan army and Romans in Amaq and Dabiq, and because Constantinople was conquered in 1453 by an army from Anatolia (modern-day Turkey), not an army from Medina.

So either this Hadith is a fabrication attributed to the prophet, or this is a prediction that the prophet made based on his personal understanding rather than divine revelation.

Like prophet Muhammad in verse 33:37, Rashad too was reprimanded by God for his cowardice. In Rashad’s case, he was rebuked for hiding his messengership for 8 years due to fear of the people.

Like prophet Muhammad in verse 66:1, Rashad at times (due to his personal understanding) made certain prohibitions that God did not prohibit (such as prohibiting women from leading Salat prayers in a mixed congregation).

Both messengers (Rashad and Muhammad), while possessing great character, were ultimately humans, with their own (sometimes overlapping) character flaws.

This is 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. Just like prophet Muhammad’s own ijtihad was never guaranteed perfection. Rashad has said this numerous times, as shown below:

“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.”

“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 is 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.”

“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.”

Rashad stated in a Quranic study audio that he accepts when others point out mistakes he made, and sometimes deliberately let himself make mistakes.

That means he doesn’t always double or triple check his statements for mistakes before saying them and doesn’t always put every thought that comes to his mind through a filter.

He says he lets himself make mistakes so that others may understand that is imperfect and avoid idol-worshipping him.

The primary message that God sent to mankind through him is the command to follow the Quran alone, so he doesn’t want people blindly following his statements and actions without first verifying them with the Quran alone.

Reaction to Rashad

35 years after his assassination, Rashad’s legacy lives on amongst those who have believed in him and followed him.

Unfortunately, he continues to be slandered as a crazy person who claimed to be a prophet, in spite of the sheer number of times that Rashad denied prophethood.

The Quran in Surah 2 highlights a striking similarity between the Jews during Muhammad’s time and the Sunnis during Rashad’s time.

Verse 87 said that whenever a messenger came to the Jews with what they didn’t like, they denied some and went as far as killing others.

Likewise, Rashad came with the message of returning to Islam by the Quran alone, and his mission of confirming the past scriptures via the number 19 (which the Sunnis did not like), and for that, he was denied, targeted, and ultimately killed in January 1990. His own father tried to hire a man to assassinate Rashad, which failed at the time.

Verse 89 says that Jews in the past had certain prophecies in their past books that they were waiting to be fulfilled, so that it can evidence that their books were correct; but when another book came to them in the future that contained what they recognized from their past books (such as prophecies being fulfilled) they disbelieved in it. One example is that the Messiah (Jesus) is prophesized in the Torah, and the Jews constantly wait for the Messiah even today to prove that Judaism is the truth. But when Jesus came to them, a group of Jews disbelieved in him and had him killed.

Similarly to the Jews in verse 89, the Sunnis during Rashad’s time and even today hope for Islam to be victorious over all other religions, and hope that it will one day be proven to the world as the truth.

But when Rashad was sent to them to convey the Quran’s ultimate proof (the 19-based mathematical composition) in fulfillment of the prophecy in verse 3:81, and to correct their religious practices and teachings, they disbelieved in him and assassinated him,

Verse 91 criticizes the Jews for believing in their own books while disbelieving what came afterward; likewise, we Muslims have believed in the Quran, but disbelieve in what the Quran said was coming afterward (the Messenger of the Covenant).

[2:87] … But is it not that whenever a messenger came to you with what yourselves did not desire, you were arrogant? You thus denied one group and kill another group.

[2:89] And when a (new) Book came to them from God, a confirmer for what was with them (their past scriptures), while they used to seek victory over the disbelievers before. But when what they recognized (from the past scripture) came to them (by newer scriptures and messengers), they disbelieved it (the new scriptures). Thus, God’s curse is on the disbelievers.

[2:91] And when it was said to them, “Believe in what God has brought down,” they said, “We believe in what was brought down upon us.” But they disbelieve in what is after it, while it is the truth, a confirmer for what is with them…

Conclusion: The Killing of Rashad

In February 1989, the Islamic Council of Fiqh (IFC) held their 11^th conference in Mecca. The leading voice of that conference was Abdul-Aziz ibn Baz, who would become Arabia’s Grand Mufti 4 years later. The council issued a declaration labelling Rashad Khalifa as “apostate”, thus possibly setting the stage for his murder.

In Sunni Islam, apostasy (a Muslim becoming a non-Muslim) is punishable by death because it is one of the three valid reasons to take the life of a Muslim. So by rejecting Hadiths and Sunna, and declaring his messengership, Rashad met one of the three criteria for death in Sunni Islam.

Abdullah ibn Masud reported Allah’s Messenger as saying, “It is not permissible to take the life of a Muslim who bears testimony to the fact that there is no god but Allah, and I am the Messenger of Allah, but in one of the three cases: the married adulterer, a life for a life, and those who leave his religion (Islam), abandoning the community.” (Sahih Muslim, No. 1676)

Since then, the death threats against Rashad intensified, both verbal and written. Investigators in Colorado uncovered a 1989 plan to assassinate Rashad Khalifa, written by members of the terrorist group Jamaat ul-Fuqra.

Rashad Khalifa was stabbed to death on January 31st, 1990 inside his mosque by a Jamaat ul-Fuqra affiliate in a manner similar to the written plan. The image below shows Glen Francis, the Jamaat ul-Fuqra affiliate who committed this assassination and was subsequently sentenced to life in prison:

The many objections and criticisms from the disbelievers both before and during Muhammad’s time have been well-documented in the Quran, and this is not an exhaustive list, thus we must resolve at once to accept Rashad wholeheartedly and not follow in their footsteps:

[25:41] And when they see you (Muhammad), they take you not but as a joke: “Is this the one whom God sent as a messenger?”

[7:66] The chiefs of the ones who disbelieved among his people said, “Indeed, We definitely see you as foolish, and we assume you are among the liars.”

[11:53] They said, “O Hud, you have not come to us with clear proof, and we will not be ones who leave our gods upon your saying, and we are not believers for you.”

[11:91] They said, “O Shu’aib, we do not understand much of what you say, and indeed, we definitely see you as weak among us. And if not for your family, we would have stoned you. But you are not with might against us.”

[43:31] And they said, “Why was not this Quran brought down upon a great man of the two towns!”

[11:27] But the chiefs of the ones who disbelieved among his people said, “We see you not but as a human like us, and we do not see who followed you except the ones who are the most abject of us, the ones who are shallow of vision. We do not see for you any favor over us. Rather, we think you are liars.”

[5:104] And when it was said to them, “Come towards what God has brought down, and towards the messenger,” they said, “Sufficient for us is what we found our fathers upon.” Even if their fathers neither know anything, nor accept guidance?

Additional Resources

Rashad Khalifa’s newsletters and his translation of the Quran (plus Appendices) can be found on the website of the masjid he founded:

This is a YouTube playlist of Rashad’s group Quranic study sessions: (56) 01 Quran Study From Azhar 1 Sura 72;19 28 & Sura 73 By Kathryn Jinns 05 26 1989 – YouTube

Some things that stand out from his Quranic study sessions is that they are very relaxed and informal, with frequent laughter, jokes, and banter, and involve multiple people (including Rashad) talking and expressing their opinions and perspectives. These Quranic studies are not segregated by gender either, both men and women are sitting with one another, contributing equally, and both take on the role of “teacher”.

Rashad was like a very close friend to the people who regularly attended the masjid along with him, and these Quranic study sessions definitely show that.

During some sessions, Rashad takes the role of the “teacher”, while at other times someone else is the teacher while Rashad and the rest of the members are the “students”.

And here is a recommended YouTube playlist of various recorded speeches and Friday sermons from Rashad Khalifa: 01 What Life is All About & Who is GOD?