Seal of the Prophets ( ar, خاتم النبيين, translit=khātam an-nabīyīn or khātim an-nabīyīn; or ar, خاتم الأنبياء, translit=khātam al-anbiyā’ or khātim al-anbiyā), is a title used in the
Qur'an
The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God. It is organized in 114 chapters (pl.: , sing. ...
and by
Muslims
Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abraha ...
to designate the Islamic prophet
Muhammad
Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 Common Era, CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Muhammad in Islam, Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet Divine inspiration, di ...
as the
last of the prophets sent by
God
In monotheistic thought, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. Swinburne, R.G. "God" in Honderich, Ted. (ed)''The Oxford Companion to Philosophy'', Oxford University Press, 1995. God is typically ...
.
The title is applied to Muhammad in verse 33:40 of the Qur'an, with the popular
Yusuf Ali translation reading:
Term variations
There is a difference among the schools of Qur'anic recitation regarding the reading of the word خاتم in verse 33:40 – it can be read as either ''khātim'' or ''khātam''. Of the ten ''
qirā’āt'' (readings, methods of recitation) regarded as authentic – seven ''
''mutawātir'''' and three
''mashhūr'' – all read خاتم in this verse with a ''
kasrah
The Arabic script has numerous diacritics, which include: consonant pointing known as (), and supplementary diacritics known as (). The latter include the vowel marks termed (; singular: , ').
The Arabic script is a modified abjad, where sh ...
'' on the ''
tāʼ
Taw, tav, or taf is the twenty-second and last letter of the Semitic abjads, including Phoenician Tāw , Hebrew Tav , Aramaic Taw , Syriac Taw ܬ, and Arabic ت Tāʼ (22nd in abjadi order, 3rd in modern order). In Arabic, it is also gives r ...
'' (خاتِم, ''khātim'') with the exception of 'Asim, who reads with a ''
fatḥah
The Arabic script has numerous diacritics, which include: consonant pointing known as (), and supplementary diacritics known as (). The latter include the vowel marks termed (; singular: , ').
The Arabic script is a modified abjad, where sh ...
'' on the ''tāʼ'' (خاتَم, ''khātam'').
The reading of
al-Hasan, a ''shadhdh'' (aberrant) recitation, is also ''khātam''.
The recitation that has become prevalent in most of the world today is Hafs 'an 'Asim – that is, the ''qirā’ah'' of 'Asim in the ''riwāyah'' (transmission) of his student Hafs.
Hadith
Final brick metaphor
In a well-known hadith reported by
Abu Hurayrah
Abu Hurayra ( ar, أبو هريرة, translit=Abū Hurayra; –681) was one of the companions of Islamic prophet Muhammad and, according to Sunni Islam, the most prolific narrator of hadith.
He was known by the ''kunyah'' Abu Hurayrah "Fathe ...
,
Jabir ibn Abd Allah,
Ubayy ibn Ka'b
Ubayy ibn Ka'b ( ar, أُبَيّ ٱبْن كَعْب, ') (died 649), also known as Abu Mundhir, was a companion of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and a person of high esteem in the early Muslim community.
Biography
Ubayy was born in Medina (th ...
, and
Abu Sa‘id al-Khudri
Abu or ABU may refer to:
Places
* Abu (volcano), a volcano on the island of Honshū in Japan
* Abu, Yamaguchi, a town in Japan
* Ahmadu Bello University, a university located in Zaria, Nigeria
* Atlantic Baptist University, a Christian university ...
, and recorded by
al-Bukhari,
Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj,
al-Tirmidhi
Abū ʿĪsā Muḥammad ibn ʿĪsā as-Sulamī aḍ-Ḍarīr al-Būghī at-Tirmidhī ( ar, أبو عيسى محمد بن عيسى السلمي الضرير البوغي الترمذي; fa, , ''Termezī''; 824 – 9 October 892 CE / 209 - 2 ...
,
Ahmad ibn Hanbal
Ahmad ibn Hanbal al-Dhuhli ( ar, أَحْمَد بْن حَنْبَل الذهلي, translit=Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal al-Dhuhlī; November 780 – 2 August 855 CE/164–241 AH), was a Muslim jurist, theologian, ascetic, hadith traditionist, and ...
,
al-Nasa'i
Al-Nasāʾī (214 – 303 AH; 829 – 915 CE), full name Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Aḥmad ibn Shuʿayb ibn ʿAlī ibn Sīnān al-Nasāʾī, (variant: Abu Abdel-rahman Ahmed ibn Shua'ib ibn Ali ibn Sinan ibn Bahr ibn Dinar Al-Khurasani ...
, and others, Muhammad compared the relationship between himself and the previous prophets to a building missing a single brick.
[الشواهد](_blank)
(Corroborating narrations for this hadith). Islamweb.com. In ''
Sahih al-Bukhari'' it is reported by Abu Hurayrah that Muhammad said, "My similitude in comparison with the prophets before me is that of a man who has built a house nicely and beautifully, except for a place of one brick in a corner. The people go about it and wonder at its beauty, but say: 'Would that this brick be put in its place!' So I am that brick, and I am the seal of the prophets" (fa’anā ’l-labinah, wa anā khātamu ’n-nabīyīn). This hadith is narrated with similar wording in ''
Sahih Muslim
Sahih Muslim ( ar, صحيح مسلم, translit=Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim), group=note is a 9th-century ''hadith'' collection and a book of '' sunnah'' compiled by the Persian scholar Muslim ibn al-Ḥajjāj (815–875). It is one of the most valued b ...
'', ''
Musnad Ahmad ibn Hanbal
''Musnad Ahmad ibn Hanbal'' ( ar, مسند أحمد بن حنبل) is a collection of musnad hadith compiled by the Islamic scholar Ahmad ibn Hanbal (d. 241 AH/855 AD) to whom the Hanbali fiqh (legislation) is attributed.
Description
It is on ...
'', ''
as-Sunan al-Kubra'' of al-Nasa'i, and ''
Sahih Ibn Hibban
''Ṣaḥīḥ Ibn Ḥibbān'' (صحيح ابن حبان) is a collection of hadith by Sunni scholar Ibn Hibban. It has the distinction of being one of small number of collections intended by the respective authors to contain only authentic hadith ...
''. In ''Mu'jam al-Awsat'',
al-Tabarani
Abū al-Qāsim Sulaymān ibn Aḥmad ibn Ayyūb ibn Muṭayyir al-Lakhmī al-Shāmī al-Ṭabarānī (Arabic: أبو القاسم سليمان بن أحمد بن أيوب بن مطير اللَّخمي الشامي الطبراني) (AH 260/c. 87 ...
narrated a variant wording of the hadith with the last statement being, "So I am that
rick
Rick may refer to:
People
*Rick (given name), a list of people with the given name
*Alan Rick (born 1976), Brazilian politician, journalist, pastor and television personality
*Johannes Rick (1869–1946), Austrian-born Brazilian priest and mycol ...
I am the seal of the prophets, there is no prophet after me" (''fa’anā dhālika, anā khātamu ’n-nabīyīn, lā nabīya ba‘dī''). Ibn Hibban also has a variant ending with "I was the place of that brick, with me the
ine ofmessengers is sealed" (''fakuntu anā mawḍi‘u tilka ’l-labinah, khutima biya ’r-rusul''). In ''Sahih Muslim'' and ''Musnad Ahmad'' the hadith is also reported by Jabir ibn Abd Allah, with the last statement being "So I am the place of that brick, I have come and sealed the
ine ofprophets" (fa’anā mawḍi‘u ’l-labinah, ji’tu fakhatamtu ’l-anbiyā’).
Abu Dawud al-Tayalisi in his ''
Musnad'' has from Jabir, "So I am the place of that brick, with me the
ine ofprophets is sealed" (''fa’anā mawḍi‘u ’l-labinah, khutima biya ’l-anbiyā’'').
Other hadith
In another hadith, Muhammad prophesied the appearance of a number of false prophets before the day of judgement, while asserting his status as the seal of the prophets.
It is reported by Thawban ibn Kaidad that Muhammad said, "The Hour will not be established until tribes of my ''
ummah
' (; ar, أمة ) is an Arabic word meaning "community". It is distinguished from ' ( ), which means a nation with common ancestry or geography. Thus, it can be said to be a supra-national community with a common history.
It is a synonym for ' ...
'' (community) unite with the idolaters, and until they worship idols. And in my ''ummah'' there will be thirty liars, each of whom will claim to be a prophet, (but) I am the seal of the prophets, there is no prophet after me."
Hudhayfah ibn al-Yaman
Hudhayfah ibn al-Yaman (), or pronounced Huthaifah or Huzaifah (died in 656), was one of the Sahabah (companion) of the Islamic prophet, Muhammad.
Early years in Medina
At Medina, Hudhayfah became a trusted and great companion of Muhammad, par ...
reports that Muhammad said, "In my ''ummah'' there will be twenty-seven liars and ''dajjals'', among whom are four women, (but) I am the seal of the prophets, there is no prophet after me".
Classical lexicons
According to the authoritative dictionary ''
Lisan al-Arab
''Lisān al-ʿArab'' (لسان العرب, "Tongue of Arabs") is a dictionary of Arabic completed by Ibn Manzur in 1290. History
Ibn Manzur's objective in this project was to reïndex and reproduce the contents of previous works to facilit ...
'' of
Ibn Manzur
Muhammad ibn Mukarram ibn Alī ibn Ahmad ibn Manzūr al-Ansārī al-Ifrīqī al-Misrī al-Khazrajī () also known as Ibn Manẓūr () (June–July 1233 – December 1311/January 1312) was an Arab lexicographer of the Arabic language and author o ...
,
According to ''Taj al-Arus'' of
al-Zabidi,
Further,
Traditional interpretation
The title is generally regarded by Muslims as meaning that Muhammad is the last in the series of prophets beginning with
Adam
Adam; el, Ἀδάμ, Adám; la, Adam is the name given in Genesis 1-5 to the first human. Beyond its use as the name of the first man, ''adam'' is also used in the Bible as a pronoun, individually as "a human" and in a collective sense as " ...
. The belief that a new prophet cannot arise after Muhammad is shared by both
Sunni
Sunni Islam () is the largest branch of Islam, followed by 85–90% of the world's Muslims. Its name comes from the word '' Sunnah'', referring to the tradition of Muhammad. The differences between Sunni and Shia Muslims arose from a disagr ...
and
Shi'a
Shīʿa Islam or Shīʿīsm is the second-largest Islamic schools and branches, branch of Islam. It holds that the Prophets and messengers in Islam, Islamic prophet Muhammad in Islam, Muhammad designated Ali, ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib as his S ...
Muslims. Some of the most prominent historical Sunni texts on creed (''
aqidah
''Aqidah'' ( (), plural ''ʿaqāʾid'', also rendered ''ʿaqīda'', ''aqeeda'', etc.) is an Islamic term of Arabic origin that literally means " creed". It is also called Islamic creed and Islamic theology.
''Aqidah'' go beyond concise state ...
'') explicitly mention the doctrine of finality of prophethood. For example, in ''
al-Aqidah at-Tahawiyyah'' it is asserted that "Every claim to the prophetic office after his is a delusion and a wandering desire." In another popular work, ''
al-Aqidah an-Nasafiyyah'', it is stated, "The first of the prophets is Adam and the last is Muhammad."
Academic views
Hartwig Hirschfeld
Hartwig Hirschfeld (; 18 December 1854 – 10 January 1934) was a Prussian-born British Orientalist, bibliographer, and educator. His particular scholarly interest lay in Arabic Jewish literature and in the relationship between Jewish and Ara ...
doubted the authenticity of the verse 33:40 and claimed it to be of late origin.
Yohanan Friedmann
Yohanan Friedmann (born 1936) is an Israeli scholar of Islamic studies.
Biography
Friedmann was born in Zákamenné, Czechoslovakia and immigrated to Israel with his parents in 1949. He attended high school at the Reali School in Haifa (1945-19 ...
states that Hirschfeld's arguments "that the title ''khatam an-nabiyyin'' is unusual, that it only appears once in the Qur'an, that the word ''khatam'' is not Arabic…do not seem valid arguments against the authenticity of the verse."
[
Frants Buhl accepted the traditional meaning of last prophet.
]Josef Horovitz
Josef Horovitz (26 July 1874 – 5 February 1931) was a Jewish German orientalist.A son of Markus Horovitz (1844–1910), an Orthodox rabbi, Josef Horovitz studied with Eduard Sachau at the University of Berlin and was there since 1902 as a doce ...
suggested two possible interpretations of ''khatam an-nabiyyin'': the last prophet or the one who confirms the authenticity of the previous prophets. Heinrich Speyer agreed with Horovitz.
According to Alford T. Welch Alford T. Welch is a Professor of Religious Studies at Michigan State University. Welch got his Ph.D. degree in Arabic and Islamic Studies from the University of Edinburgh in 1970. He also holds a M.Div. degree on Biblical language, literature and N ...
, the traditional Muslim belief that Muhammad is "last and greatest of the prophets" is most likely based on a later interpretation of 33:40.
The first modern academic to have studied in detail the history of the doctrine of finality of prophethood is Yohanan Friedmann. In his seminal article, ''Finality of Prophethood in Sunni Islam'' (1986), he concluded that although the notion of finality of prophethood "eventually acquired an undisputed and central place in the religious thought of Islam," it was contested during the first century AH.[ He states, "While it is true that the phrase ''khatam an-nabiyyin'' is generally interpreted as meaning 'the last prophet', the exegetical tradition and other branches of classical Arabic literature preserved material which indicates that this now generally received understanding of the Qur'anic phrase is not the only possible one and had not necessarily been the earliest."][ Due to this Friedmann states that the meaning of ''khatam an-nabiyyin'' in its original Qur'anic context is still in doubt.][
]Wilferd Madelung
Wilferd Ferdinand Madelung FBA (b. December 26, 1930 in Stuttgart) is a German-British author and scholar of Islamic history.
Life
After World War II, the adolescent Wilferd accompanied his parents to the USA where his father Georg Hans Made ...
takes Friedmann's findings into consideration in observing that the original Qur'anic meaning of the term is not entirely certain.[ However, in a more recent paper he states, "Most Muslims at the time no doubt understood it to mean that he was to be the last prophet and Islam was the final religion, as Muslims have commonly understood it ever since."][ An edited version of an article that originally appeared in the ''Proceedings of the 25th Congress of L’Union Européenne des Arabisants et Islamisants'' in 2013.]
Carl W. Ernst
Carl W. Ernst (born September 8, 1950, in Los Angeles, California) is the William R. Kenan, Jr., Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Islamic studies at the Department of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He was ...
considers the phrase to mean that Muhammad's "imprint on history is as final as a wax seal
A seal is a device for making an impression in Sealing wax, wax, clay, paper, or some other medium, including an embossment on paper, and is also the impression thus made. The original purpose was to authenticate a document, or to prevent interf ...
on a letter."
David Powers, also making use of Friedmann's research, believes that the early Muslim community was divided over the meaning of the expression, with some understanding it to mean he fulfilled or confirmed the earlier Christian and Jewish revelations, while others understood it as signifying that Muhammad brought the office of prophethood to a close. He suggests that the Qur'anic text underwent a series of secondary omissions and additions which were designed to adapt the text to the dogma of finality of prophethood, and that the idea of finality only became the prevailing interpretation (alongside the notion of confirmation or fulfilment) by the end of the 1st century AH / 7th century. In a review of Powers' book, Gerald Hawting
Gerald R. Hawting (born 1944) is a British historian and Islamicist.
Life
Hawting's teachers were Bernard Lewis and John Wansbrough. He received his Ph.D. in 1978. He is Emeritus Professor for the History of the Near and Middle East at the Sc ...
goes further, suggesting that the development of the doctrine was not complete before the 3rd century AH / 9th century.[ Madelung comments that Power's argument, that verses 36–40 are a later addition dating from the generation after Muhammad's death, is "hardly sustainable."][
]Uri Rubin
Uri Rubin ( he, אורי רובין; 1944 – 26 October 2021) was an Israeli academic who was a professor in the Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies at Tel Aviv University. His areas of research were early Islam (with special emphasis on t ...
holds that the finality of prophethood is a Qur'anic idea, not a post-Qur'anic one, and that the expression ''khatam an-nabiyyin'' implies both finality of prophethood and confirmation. In response to Powers and other modern scholars sceptical of the early origin of the doctrine, Rubin concludes from his study "that, at least as far as Sura 33 is concerned, the consonantal structure of the Qur'anic text has not been tampered with, and that the idea of finality of prophethood is well-represented in the text, as well as in the earliest available extra-Quranic materials." Rubin reexamines the early extra-Qur'anic texts cited by Friedmann and other modern scholars, and concludes that rather than indicating that the notion of finality of prophethood is late, the texts confirm the early origin of the belief. He concludes that "there is no compelling reason to assume that the Muslims of the first Islamic century originally understood the Qur'anic ''khatam an-nabiyyin'' in the sense of confirmation alone, without that of finality."[
]
Official mandates
In Pakistan voters before voting and leaders before assuming their offices have to declare in writing and take an oath of finality of prophethood, (i.e. Khatm-i-Nabuwat); any one not subscribing is considered claiming otherwise and a non-Muslim and may face persecution and loss of opportunities. Quranic verses and Ahadith pertaining to the finality of prophethood have to be displayed prominently in Government offices, and at entrances to districts along highways.
On 22 June 2020, the Government of Pakistan
The Government of Pakistan ( ur, , translit=hakúmat-e pákistán) abbreviated as GoP, is a federal government established by the Constitution of Pakistan as a constituted governing authority of the Administrative units of Pakistan, four provin ...
made it mandatory that term () be added to the name of Islamic prophet Muhammad
Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 Common Era, CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Muhammad in Islam, Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet Divine inspiration, di ...
in textbooks and official documents where previously it was passed on 15 June in the Sindh Assembly
The Provincial Assembly of Sindh ( ur, ) is a unicameral legislature of elected representatives of the Pakistani provinces, Pakistani province of Sindh, and is located in Karachi, the provincial capital. It was established under Article 106 of ...
. In October 2021 Punjab, Pakistan
Punjab (; , ) is one of the four provinces of Pakistan. Located in central-eastern region of the country, Punjab is the second-largest province of Pakistan by land area and the largest province by population. It shares land borders with the ...
provincial assembly recommended inclusion of oath of Khatm-i-Nabuwat in the Nikah (marriage) documents.
Similarly, the Khatumo
Khatumo State ( so, Khaatumo; ar, ولاية خاتمة, translit=wilāyat khātimah), officially the Khatumo State of Somalia ( so, Dowlad Goboleedka Khaatumo ee Soomaaliya), was a successor to the SSC Movement. Centred on the Sool, Sanaag re ...
administration based in Buuhoodle
Buuhoodle ( so, Buuhoodle, ar, بووهودل), also known as Bohotle, is the second largest city in the Togdheer region of Somaliland and also the capital of the Cayn region under Puntland. It is a prominent border town for movements of goods t ...
and centred on the Sool, central Sanaag
Sanag ( so, Sanaag, ar, سَنَاج) is an administrative region ('' gobol'') in north eastern Somaliland.[Regions o ...](_blank)
and Ayn regions of northern Somalia, claims its title is derived from the Quranic injunction of Khatam an-Nabiyyin.
Ahmadiyya interpretation
The Ahmadiyya Community believe that Muhammad brought prophethood to perfection and was the last prophet to have brought a complete and comprehensive universal law for humanity, but prophethood subordinate to Muhammad is still open. New prophets may be born, but they must be seen as subordinate to Muhammad and cannot create any new law or religion. Mirza Ghulam Ahmad
Mirzā Ghulām Ahmad (13 February 1835 – 26 May 1908) was an Indian religious leader and the founder of the Ahmadiyya movement in Islam. He claimed to have been divinely appointed as the promised Messiah and Mahdi—which is the metaphori ...
, who founded the movement in Qadian
Qadian (; ; ) is a city and a municipal council in Gurdaspur district, north-east of Amritsar, situated north-east of Batala city in the state of Punjab, India.
Qadian is the birthplace of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, the founder of the Ahmadiyya m ...
, India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
in 1889, is believed to be the promised Messiah
In Abrahamic religions, a messiah or messias (; ,
; ,
; ) is a saviour or liberator of a group of people. The concepts of '' mashiach'', messianism, and of a Messianic Age originated in Judaism, and in the Hebrew Bible, in which a ''mashiach ...
and Mahdi
The Mahdi ( ar, ٱلْمَهْدِيّ, al-Mahdī, lit=the Guided) is a Messianism, messianic figure in Islamic eschatology who is believed to appear at the Eschatology, end of times to rid the world of evil and injustice. He is said to be a de ...
. He claimed a kind of prophethood, believed he had been divinely appointed to revive and universally establish Islam, but not to have add to or change the laws of God or Muhammad.[The Question of Finality of Prophethood]
The Promised Mehdi and Messiha, by Dr. Aziz Ahmad Chaudhry, Islam International Publications Limited This has caused controversy between Ahmadis and more mainstream Muslims, who accuse them of denying the finality of prophethood. Ahmadiyya Muslims are subjected to considerable persecution
Persecution is the systematic mistreatment of an individual or group by another individual or group. The most common forms are religious persecution, racism, and political persecution, though there is naturally some overlap between these term ...
for their beliefs.
Baháʼí Faith view
The Baháʼí Faith
The Baháʼí Faith is a religion founded in the 19th century that teaches the Baháʼí Faith and the unity of religion, essential worth of all religions and Baháʼí Faith and the unity of humanity, the unity of all people. Established by ...
regards Muhammad as a Manifestation of God and as the Seal of the Prophets, but does not believe Revelation or Scripture from God has ended. In particular, Baháʼís regard the end-times prophecies of Islam
Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...
(and other faiths) as being both metaphorical and literal, and see the Báb
The Báb (b. ʿAlí Muḥammad; 20 October 1819 – 9 July 1850), was the messianic founder of Bábism, and one of the central figures of the Baháʼí Faith. He was a merchant from Shiraz in Qajar Iran who, in 1844 at the age of 25, claimed ...
and Bahá'u'lláh as fulfilling these prophetic expectations. The latter of these is the founder of the Baháʼí religion, which considers Islamic law as secondary or tertiary to its own. Muhammad is seen as ending the '' Adamic cycle'', also known as the ''Prophetic cycle'', which is stated by Bahá'is to have begun approximately 6,000 years ago, and the Báb and Bahá'u'lláh as starting the ''Baháʼí cycle'', or ''Cycle of Fulfilment'', which will last at least five hundred thousand years with numerous Manifestations of God appearing throughout this time. Moreover, Mirza Husayn 'Ali Nuri Bahá'u'lláh gave the Title "King of the Messengers" (''sultán al-rusul'') to the Báb, and the "Sender of the Messengers" (''mursil al-rusul'') to himself. Additionally, the Kitáb-i-Íqán
The ''Kitáb al-Íqán or Kitáb-i-Íqán'' ( fa, كتاب ايقان, ar, كتاب الإيقان "Book of Certitude") is one of many books held sacred by followers of the Baháʼí Faith; it is their primary theological work. One Baháʼí sch ...
shows the Islamic concept of the oneness of the prophets and the Hadith, "knowledge is a single point, which the foolish have multiplied," to reveal that the term "Seal of the Prophets", like Alpha and Omega, apply to all the prophets: "Whilst established upon the seat of the 'first', they occupy the throne of the 'last'." In summary, these interpretive and legal differences have caused the Bahá'ís to be seen as heretics
Heresy is any belief or theory that is strongly at variance with established beliefs or customs, in particular the accepted beliefs of a church or religious organization. The term is usually used in reference to violations of important religi ...
and apostates
Apostasy (; grc-gre, ἀποστασία , 'a defection or revolt') is the formal disaffiliation from, abandonment of, or renunciation of a religion by a person. It can also be defined within the broader context of embracing an opinion that ...
by some Muslims, which has led to their persecution
Persecution is the systematic mistreatment of an individual or group by another individual or group. The most common forms are religious persecution, racism, and political persecution, though there is naturally some overlap between these term ...
in different countries.
References
External links
* {{Wikiquote inline
Quranic words and phrases
Titles of Muhammad