Last of the Prophets

In the Qu'ran, Muhammad is called "The Seal of the Prophets".
What exactly does this mean?

The verse in question, is as follows (Qu'ran 33:40):

"Muhammad... is the Messenger of God and the Seal (Khatam) of the prophets (Nabi).
And God is ever Knower of all things."

The term used for Seal is Khatam, which means "seal" or "ornament". A different, related word commonly used to mean 'last' is Khatim.

The term used for Prophet is Nabi (Prophet) rather than Rasul (Messenger). Generally, a Rasul is a great Messenger like Jesus or Moses who brings a new religious era, outlook and community way, whereas prophets like Elijah are called Nabi and support and promote that message for the age. So for instance, the earliest biography of Muhammad is Sirat Rasul Allah, giving Muhammad the greater of the two titles, Rasul rather than Nabi.

The most obvious question to ask, is why use Khatam (Seal) when Khatim (Last) could have much better been used, if last is what is intended.

Some Muslims respond to this issue by saying that using the word Seal gains from hints of Lastness; yet you would be far better off being unambiguous and use the word Last and gain from secondary hints of the meaning of Seal.
I think it's probably reasonable to say from this that by using the word Seal rather than Last, the Qu'ran means Seal rather than Last.

So in considering what is meant by Seal, you really have to look at what a Seal is.

In the past, a seal was used for several things.

• Only the intended recipient receives a message
  A seal (think of a wax seal closing up an envelope) seals up a parchment, so that when the parchment is opened, the seal breaks. This means that anyone who breaks the seal in opening it, will know see that no one else has viewed its contents; if you are the recipient, you can open it, know no one else has read it, and then dispose of it or share it widely or wisely as required. Otherwise, every messenger running an errand would open the message and look at it, and close it up again. The seal meant that he could not do this, unless he wanted to be discovered, and be punished, and probably lose his head if the message was from the King. So the message got only to the person it was meant for, or you saw when others had read it.
• Proves who a message is from
  A seal is also the sign to prove who it is from, much as today we sign documents with a signature. This prevents anyone impersonating you by writing a message as if it is from you. So when a message carries an important command or decision of authority, it is particularly important to show who it is from, and this also enables messages lacking the seal to be rejected. So the seal prevents impersonation, assuring the recipient that it is genuine when the command is a hard one, and allowing them to reject ungenuine ones.
• Sign of Decisiveness
  Putting a seal on an important decision or command is usually a conclusive act, often after much deliberation, that takes the decision to its fulfilment. So it has a feel decisiveness to it, and must be followed through.
• Beauty and Perfection
  A seal is also a seal-making tool (like a stamp, often in a ring on the king's finger), or the artistic design of the seal that is beautiful and hard to copy. So it is a sign of artistic beauty and perfection.
• Fixing things for a time
  Other types of seal have a similar nature, such as the seal that stops up a bottle, preventing loss or contamination. By preventing contamination, you are fixing things in their place for a period until they are wanted to be used up for a great purpose. A bottle stop may be opened and the contents used, but may be resealed, and is certainly never meant to be the last or only bottle. So when you send a sealed message that is to be carried out, it is for a great purpose and will remain that way until another sealed message gives a changed directive.
• Summary
  In all of these instances, the seal is there to be broken, at the right time and place and by the right person; the seal gets used once, but is never the last - the king may seal a letter, but he will write and seal another letter a little later; the seal at the end of a command makes the command as binding and conclusive, but only until another command is issued with the same or a greater authority.

• Endorser of the Prophets - Muhammad endorses and vindicates those prophets and prophecies whose words, deeds and community life in the spirit all pave the way for his message - confirming their truths and prophecies, fulfilling them, and endorsing them retrospectively where they were lesser prophets (rather as a king will endorse what has been done for him in his absence) - just as he in turn paves the way for the Great Day of God.
• Endorser from the Prophets - Out of all the Prophets so far, Muhammad is the one who most successfully establishes and advances the eternal message of God to man.
• Conclusiveness - The religions of God throughout history are like the ongoing words of a single message from God to mankind, and Muhammad is the decisive stamp on that message saying "do it!" or "it is done!" (when coming from an authoritative command, 'do it' and 'it is done' are the same) - and thereafter, the next revelations of God's ongoing revelation will be like building a house upon that foundation laid and built by the many religions across the world over many centuries, an entirely new spiritual directive in history.
• Preserver / Unsealer - People are unable to understand or to carry out the 'sealed' prophecies and messages, until one who is authorised opens up the way for their meaning and implementation. If you understand each religion of God as a preparation for the next, with Moses preparing the way for Jesus, and Jesus for Muhammad, then the fruit of each religion is a gift to the task of the next Messenger, to use in establishing the religion they bring for the times. In this sense, by being the Seal of the Prophets, Muhammad is handing on all the past religions and testimony of prophets, into the hands of the Messenger/Prophet who comes after Muhammad, who will convey and implement the poorly-received universal meaning of the past religions and testimonies in a world religion. All past religions had the capacity and yearning to be World-uniting, but never became so due to failure of human commitment and the simple logistics of communication; but the Messenger who follows the Seal of the Prophets will successfully implement the World-uniting religion that all religions have sighed and yearned for being.
• Seal that is the Prophets - The Seal of the Prophets is a seal that comprises all past (or existing) prophets - like a united seal of the authority and hopes of those prophets, in the form of Muhammad. Thus the mission of Muhammad is endorsed by the Prophets of the past in a unison of endorsement. You could perhaps say the spirits of those prophets were in a heavenly realm of spiritual unison with Muhammad as he engaged in his mission.
• Latest - Where hints of last are felt in any word, last often just means latest; for example, "The last letter I wrote was to Malcolm" - here last doesn't mean your last letter ever, simply your latest message.

These are the different meanings that arise from looking at what it means to be a 'seal' of the prophets.

In short, there is nothing about the Qu'ranic phrase "Seal of the Prophets" that indicates that Muhammad is the final prophet, for the simple reason there is nothing about the concept of a Seal that in any way indicates lastness, merely decisiveness, authority and fulfilment of a particular chapter in world history. The sense of 'Last' in a seal is an all-binding but temporary lastness, indicating things are decided, fixed and permanent, until they are abrogated or changed by a subsequent command of the seal-holder (God).

Everything written within the Qu'ran indicates that Allah is always sending a constant stream of Messengers and prophets to mankind, with the obvious expectation that this process will also continuously occur after Muhammad. This is the process reiterated everywhere throughout the Qu'ran, and had Muhammad brought this time-old process to an end, you would find it stated in a great many verses throughout the Qu'ran rather than just one verse that obliquely uses 'seal' instead of 'last'.

Nevertheless, there is perhaps something about the phrase that suggests Muhammad is a prophet giving a message which is the completion of some chapter in world history prior to the opening of some new chapter.

Messengers up to and including Muhammad were sent to Nations, with their message beneficially spreading out much further afield according to the spirit and communication of the times. However, after Muhammad, a turning point has occurred, as there will be no more Prophets sent to Nations - since there will be no more Nations: the world is transforming into a World Civilisation of unimaginable and rapidly-climbing technological abilities, and has already forming many embryonic institutions and organs of World Government - the United Nations, International Courts, World Health Organisation, and so forth. Everywhere people are disowning war and demanding peace. It will not be a Prophet or a Messenger who addresses this new epoch in Human existence, but a new kind of message. This is the Resurrection. A new heaven and a new earth unfolding relentlessly before the spiritual and material eyes of all the world.