Islam critiqued finds Islamic criteria; Does Quran identify prophets?

In answer to the video "Was Muhammad a False Prophet?"

In the Quran, through the story of ancient nations and prophets, it establishes a pattern by which to determine the truthfulness of one claiming prophethood. It then places Muhammad inside that pattern; uprightness in character which includes an unflinching, uncompromising stance as regards his mission, to have been foretold by previous prophets, having access to special knowledge, and prophecies coming true. This includes warnings of punishment for fighting and opposing the messengers. God does not destroy a people among whom are messengers, believers, and potential repentent sinners. An overarching theme in the Quran is that God, being the most forgiving and merciful, always grants the prophet's addressees a time of respite during which they are intensely admonished, shown signs pointing to the truth of the revelation, inflicted with corrective punishments to cause reform. The means by which such punishment is delivered may be different. The traditions speak of a scourge of famine in Mecca, and the Quran alludes to that episode. But the essential means by which the corrective punishment would be delivered with the prophet Muhammad, as already alluded to in the Meccan phase of revelation 37:171-182, was through the believers themselves. They were the main rod of God’s corrective punishment during that time of respite. The Ishmaelites believers, like the Israelites before them who were divinely commanded to engage sinful people militarily, were being established as a nation under God, charged with carrying the light of truth to the nations of the world. It is thus expected that they would be put to the ultimate test of faithfulness, demonstrating that the possibility of physical sacrifice and martyrdom for the sake of truth would not deter them from fulfilling their obligations, their covenant with God.

 And effectively by the end of the prophet's life almost the entire people he had reached with his message, who heard the admonishments, saw the signs, who were chastised with awakening punishments at the battlefield, had accepted Islam. The threatened punishement of complete destruction was thus eventually averted, as had happened with the people of Jonas/Yunus. The Quran alludes to the story of the prophet Yunus in between threats of divine destruction, so as to make the prophets Muhammad's addressees understand that the promised doom may be averted at anytime 10:95-104.

It is important to keep in mind, the Quran establishes the pattern of the prophets while the believers are in a state of weakness, even augmenting its rethoric, further antagonizing the disbelievers. As expected the people then oppose the message and prevent the people from it and get punished by the sword. End of the matter. None after him came with any of the following and was able to back his claims up:

1) comes from a common background of his addressees, meaning they know him very well, yet claims to be a Messenger, in fact the Final Messenger of God

2) warns his people of Divine chastisement

3) the chastisement comes home to roost and the partisans of the Prophet are established in the land
This is the exact process that occurred with the Bani Israil in the time of Moses, with the drowning of the host of Pharaoh and the deliverance of the Israelites, with the uprooting of the Canaanites and the establishment of the way of God. Not to mention, the Quranic invitation to the Arabs to see or recall for themselves the fate of the deniers of Nuh, Lut, Saleh, Shuayb, Hud... It is a Book of Warning that has already delivered its judgment in this world

53:36"This is a warner of the warners of old"  

54:42-5"Are the unbelievers of yours better than these, or is there an exemption for you in the scriptures?...Soon shall the hosts be routed, and they shall turn (their) backs".

As said in Deuteronomy regarding the awaited prophet

"If any man will not listen to my words which he speaks in my name, I myself will make him answer for it".

God Almighty says that Prophethood has ended with the Prophet Muhammad. The Prophet bore witness to the unity of God, and his deniers were punished in this life. For those who claimed to be Prophets after him did they remain unvanquished as per the tradition of Allah, did they emerge as triumphant leaders or does their life and death fail to bear witness to their claims?

For example Musaylima emerged shortly after the Prophet's death and was killed under the orders of Abu Bakr. Before him and contemporaneous to the prophet was Saf Ibn Sayyad. He would eventually be completely discredited and in fact convert to Islam. I will speak of him in more details in another video.

Another one was Bahaullah - though later his followers branched off into the Bahai faith which is based on the nice concept of unity of religions- he died a prisoner of the Ottoman Empire. There is also Mirza Ghulam Ahmad from Qadian, Punjab - his death is widely cited to be from either one of these diseases - cholera, diarrhoea, plague, or dysentery. Besides numerous prophecies regarding the timing and manner of his death were left unfulfilled - though Ahmadis now interpret those in a metaphorical manner- but the manner of death is hardly inspiring for one claiming to be a Prophet.

There is then Rashad Khalifa who was a modern claimant based on his theory of the number 19's pattern in the Quran. Well, besides being accused of paedophilia, he was assassinated and his theories entirely discredited.

But above all, their theories did not prevail and either remained confined to a small number of followers or were simply lost and forgotten shortly after their death.

Another modern claimant was Joseph Smith in the US who started the Latter Day Saints movement and is the founder of Mormonism. He too was unfortunately assassinated. As a side note even the Mormon story has more grounds to stand on from the point of view of authenticity, than the NT story, in that there are actually known then-living individuals who executed an affidavit saying that they had, themselves, seen something of the Mormon story whereas the NT is written by anonymous people with no first hand information decades after the alleged, unsubstantiated life of the NT Jesus.

Of all the new religions that have sprung up after Islam, one may perhaps say Sikhism is also there. But Guru Nanak, the founder of the Sikh faith, never claimed for himself Prophethood. Also, Sikhism emerged as a reform movement intertwined between Hinduism and Islam. The holy book Guru Granth contains quotes from Sufi saints as well.

One may also mention the case of Paul of Tarsus.

On the face of it, finality of Prophethood seems to be a tenuous claim. After all, potentially anyone can stand up and say that he is a Prophet of God - but so far all the instances in which this has happened has failed to even come close to the scale and scope of the Prophet Muhammad's mission.

Also, if we examine the entire career of these claimants - they have singularly and absolutely failed to match the life-chart of Prophet Muhammad and moreover their death poses even more questions than their life. What is even more interesting that none of them claimed to be the final Prophet, much less Jesus who predicted the coming of a powerful figure after him, the Paraclete, that shall bring justice to the world. That is also the topic of another video.