like Abraham, Moses, and Jesus; indeed, he went further and said that he is the master of the children of Adam, that Adam and everyone after him will stand beneath his banner on the Day of Resurrection, and that when he was taken on the Night Journey and ascended to his Lord he rose above all the prophets—Abraham, Moses, Aaron, John, Jesus, and the rest. He also declared that there will be no prophet after him; that his community are the last of mankind chronologically yet the foremost on the Day of Judgment; that the Book sent down to him is the very best discourse; and that it exercises authority over the previous scriptures even as it confirms them.

If, therefore, a person knows with certainty that his own claim is true, he is a prophet and a messenger. But whoever makes such a claim while knowing himself to be lying is among the most unjust and morally corrupt of people: “Who could be more unjust than one who fabricates a lie against Allah, or says, ‘It has been revealed to me,’ when nothing has been revealed to him?” (Al-Anʿām 6:93). And if he merely presumes himself to be truthful when in reality he is not, then he is mistaken, deluded, and misled. In that case he will inevitably err in what he reports of the unseen and commit injustice in the commands he issues, for such a state cannot persist; it must sooner or later become clear to him and to others whether he is truthful or a liar. Whoever deems himself truthful in a claim of this magnitude while in fact he is not