Question: Why did God decide to stop sending revelation for more than a thousand years? Isn’t it convenient in this day and age of modern technology that revelation has ceased?

Answer: Why did God decide to stop sending revelation? Because that was his will, revelation was never meant to be something that would last forever, nor was it ever specified that revelation would always be given to humans.

As Muslims, we believe God decided to end revelations with the Quran, and that the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) was the final and last commissioned prophet-messenger of God, with no others coming after him. As Muslims, we believe that in the revelations God has given to us, that he has specified everything we need to know concerning who he is, why he created us, and what he expects from us in order to achieve salvation. Therefore the need of revelation was no longer needed because the revelation had achieved it’s goals, this is also pretty much what the Jews and Christians also believe in with their respective books.

Now was it something convenient that revelation has ceased in this modern era? Not really, because as Muslims we believe that revelation ceased more than 1400 years ago, so it wasn’t like revelation ceased right up until before the moment of modern technology. 1400 years ago there was nothing of modern technology, so the cessation of revelation was hardly down to a matter of convenience, that suddenly it ended with the advent of modern technology.

Now let us assume for the sake of argument that revelation has not ceased, and God continues to send revelations to people today, and that he anoints prophets to spread his word, would atheists suddenly become believers? The answer is an obvious no, so the atheist question is not really one of sincerity, because it hardly matters that revelation ended 1400 years ago, or 1 year ago, atheists would still find a reason to reject it.

Furthermore, while Muslims, Christians, and Jews believe that revelations to prophets ended more than a thousand years ago, but this hasn’t stopped people from claiming to be prophets who have received divine revelation from God. We have had many people claiming to be prophets, or to be in communication with God from the past all the way to the present. So what stops atheists from believing in these persons who claim that they are receiving revelations from God? Atheists are the first people to reject such persons, declaring them to be crazy, insane, and in need of psychiatric-mental medication.

Thus again, as we have said, it doesn’t really matter whether revelation ended 1400 years ago, or 1 year ago, atheists will still reject the matter and find any excuse to do so.

Now to the point of revelation itself, as Muslims we believe that the revelation given to the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) has enough proof and signs that prove and point to the existence of a creator. So even though revelation has ceased, the revelation that we still possess from 1400 years ago gives us all the needed proof and signs we need to believe in God, thus the time frame and cessation doesn’t actually matter. The revelation has been preserved by God so all people’s in all generations (including our generation) would be able to learn from it and come to believe in it. So it isn’t like we have been left in the dark due to the fact that revelation has ended 1400 years ago, yes, revelation ended 1400 years ago, but the revelation given has been preserved, and this revelation was/is meant for all peoples at all places and all times.