33:40 Muḥammad is not the father of any of your men, but rather the messenger of God and the seal of the prophets.
This is a reminder bestowing recognition, and an explanation declaring the eminence, of the paragon of the world and master of the children of Adam, the pearl of felicity and the foundation of mastery, the kiblah of prosperity and the kaabah of hopes, Muḥammad Muṣ?afā, the eminence of whose messengerhood is bound to the Beginningless and the exaltation of whose good fortune is joined with the Endless. The pulpit and mihrab are adorned with his name. The pillars of the religion and the foundations of belief were laid down by his explanation and clarification. That paragon was outwardly all ease and inwardly all comeliness. His expressions were eloquence, his secret core love. His spirit was from the light of exaltedness, his curtain the divine jealousy. His customs were the Shariah, his robe of honor intercession. Although God stripped the name of fatherhood from him, he was more tender and more lovingly kind than any father. He said, "For you I am like a father toward his children."
It has been said that his tenderness toward his community is greater than that of fathers, but God did not call him the father of the community because of what preceded in the beginningless decree, the lordly judgment, and the divine predetermination. That is the fact that on the Day of Resurrection-in that greatest gathering place and most tremendous exposure, when the pavilion of all-subjugatingness is pitched, the carpet of tremendousness spread, the scales of justice hung, the prison of chastisement brought out from the veil, spirits come to the throat, eloquent tongues become dumb, all excuses nullified, and all relationships cut-it is then that all fathers will flee from their children, as the Exalted Lord said: "On the day a man will flee from his brother, his mother, his father" [80:34]. Adam, who is the father of all, will come forth and say, "Lord God, let Adam go, and as for his children, You know what You will do." Noah will say the same, Abraham the same; Moses, Jesus, and the other prophets the same. All will tremble from the harshness of the rising and the terror of the resurrection. They will be helpless for themselves and will not attend to their children. They will say, "'My soul, my soul!' O Lord, release me, and do what You want with the children." In that gathering place of the resurrection, Muṣ?afā the Arab will put his face in the dust, his musky locks falling on his hands, and let loose the tongue of mercy and tenderness: "Lord God, my community is a handful of the weak and hapless. They do not have the capacity for Your chastisement and punishment. Forgive them and have mercy, and do with Muḥammad whatever You want."
Because of the decree made in the Beginningless that fathers would flee from their children, He did not call him a father, lest on that day he flee from them and not intercede for them.
Listen to another subtle point: He was not called father because, if he had been a father, his testimony as a father against his son would not be accepted by the Shariah. Tomorrow at the resurrection he will testify as to the justice of the community. That is in His words, "That you may be witnesses against the people and the Messenger may be a witness against them" [2:143].