The Clans
IN THE NAME OF GOD, THE MOST GRACIOUS, THE DISPENSER OF GRACE[33:40]
[And know, O believers, that] Muhammad is not the father of any one of your men, but is God’s Apostle and the Seal of all Prophets. And God has indeed full knowledge of everything.

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* v.40 : I.e., he is the spiritual “father” of the whole community (cf. note 8 on verse 6 of this sūrah), and not of any one person or particular persons – thus, incidentally, refuting the erroneous idea that physical descent from a prophet confers, by itself, any merit on the persons concerned.
* I.e., the last of the prophets, just as a seal (khātam) marks the end of a document; apart from this, the term khātam is also synonymous with khitām, the “end” or “conclusion” of a thing: from which it follows that the message revealed through Muhammad – the Qur’ān – must be regarded as the culmination and the end of all prophetic revelation (cf. note 66 on the first sentence of the second paragraph of 5:48, and note 126 on 7:158). See also note 102 on 21:107.