Imam Khomeini once through his historic remarks said that the Holy Prophet of Islam conveyed message of spirituality and morality at a very sensitive juncture of history when the human societies had been plunged into social and moral decline.
On the auspicious occasion of Mab’ath, Imam Khomeini once said in this regard as following:
The thing that we must pay attention to on the anniversary of the Prophetic mission is that the objective of the Prophetic mission of the Prophet of God was to teach the people the path to eliminate oppression; to teach the path that would enable the people to confront the exploiting powers. The Prophet’s mission was to save the moral conduct of the people, the lives of the people, the souls of the people and the physical bodies of the people and all of these from evil; to do away totally with darkness and replace it with light; to do away with ignorance and replace it with the light of knowledge; to do away with the darkness of oppression and replace it with the light of justice. It has shown us the way; it has taught us that all people, all Muslims are brothers and must be united and not have differences. ( Sahife-ye Imam, Vol. 17, page 403)
The following come some quotes by Imam Khomeini regarding the objectives of the holy prophet’s divine mission:
The efforts of the prophets of God (‘a) and the purpose behind their appointment throughout the ages has been the nurturing of the human being. (Sahifeh-ye-Imam, Vol.14, page 6)
The subject of the Prophetic mission and its blessings are not something that our restricted vocabulary can mention; the spiritual and material aspects of it are so vast that I do not think that we can speak even about its fringes. (Sahifeh-ye-Imam, Vol.17, page 404)
the objective of the Prophetic mission of the Prophet of God was to teach the people the path to eliminate oppression; to teach the path that would enable the people to confront the big powers. The Prophet ic mission was to save the moral conduct of the people, the lives of the people, the souls of the people and the physical bodies of the people and all of these from evil; to do away totally with darkness and replace it with light; to do away with ignorance and replace it with the light of knowledge; to do away with the darkness of oppression and replace it with the light of justice. It has shown us the way; it has taught us that all people, all Muslims are brothers and must be united and not have differences. (Sahifeh-ye-Imam, Vol.17, page 408)
The Prophet’s duty to train and make man perfect
This day is a day wherein God sent the most consummate and perfect being, there is no one more perfect than him, to make His creatures perfect; the man who is initially a feeble creature. He has the capacity to progress and attain the highest grades of perfection. God sent him to give man his due station of progress, to widen his dimensions. Dimensions hidden in man are universal. Islam is to train man in each dimension. Different and various concepts that are formed of Islam are due to the views that the various people hold. There is a great difference. None of these concepts has attained the maturity to recognize or conceive Islam or man or Prophet himself or even the world. All are stagnant to go further. Quite likely, most of the people think that the Prophet and the other Prophets God has sent are to rescue man from tyranny or injustice. This is their duty to exercise justice among the people and the society. That is all. Their job is not beyond this. Most likely some could conjecture in the economical dimension. Prophets came to relieve man from hunger and poverty.
Some might think in a mystical dimension. God sent the Prophets to spread and disseminate the divine knowledge and letters. So they limit the office of the Prophets to this sphere of letters. Likewise, philosophers and jurisprudents might think and confine the duty of the Prophets within their conjecture of philosophy and so forth. So, the believers think in some other ways. The open minded ones think in their own vogue—nations—each in its own taste. All think. All have a thought. But all are short to reach the true point. There is a narration: “He who conceives his own self, conceives his Lord. This saying makes us understand that man is such a being, if discovered and known, paves way for knowing God. God can be known by knowing the being of man. Such a saying cannot be true in relation other creatures except man. No one can know the Lord of man unless the man himself. Self-knowledge entails knowing about God. This cannot be attained but by the Prophets of God. This should not be thought that Islam has come to manage the world or to make the men advertent to the world hereafter—the next world. Or it has come to acquaint the people with divine literature. To make anything limited goes contrary to the reality. Man has no limit. As such a teacher or a trainer of man too is limitless. The receipt of training that is Qur’an is also without limit. It is not limited to this materialistic world nor is it limited to the unseen world. It is not limited to the world of loneliness. It is all. It is everything. (Sahifeh-ye-Imam, Vol.12, page 361)
I must say that the day Muhammad was vested with Prophethood remains glorious and most distinguished in the annals of history from the first beam of light till the doomsday eternally. There is no other day superior to this.
The reason is that there is no event greater than this. Great many things of great importance have occurred in the world; for instance, coming of the Prophets and the advent of the Prophets of greater fame and record are of much importance and due note. But there is no event, no occurrence greater than Muhammad’s taking office of the Prophethood and becoming the last Prophet to the world. As such, no fancy can frame an event greater because there is no one greater than the Prophet except God. This is the sending of a last Prophet, a seal of the Prophets, to the world. ( Sahifeh-ye-Imam, Vol.12, page 359)
Peace and praise of God be upon the Messenger (PBUH) who rose up alone against the idol-worshippers and the arrogant powers and hoisted the banner of monotheism in favor of the oppressed. He never feared despite his meager number of followers and attacked the insurgents and oppressors with his few people and insufficient war materials, but with a strong faith and resolution. He let the world hear the call of monotheism in less than half a century across the greatest developed lands. (Sahifeh-ye-Imam, Vol.10, page 240)
The purpose of the prophetic mission is to purify the people, which have priority over teaching of Divine Wisdom and the teaching of the Scripture. Purification has been specified as the reading of āyāt to the people so that they become purified. And teach them and introduce the Book and the Wisdom to them and train them. In Sūrahal-Jum‘ah, it indicates the secret behind the prophetic mission of the Noble Messenger. It gives the secret behind the Noble Messenger’s prophetic mission as purification as well as the teaching and training of the nation, a teaching that includes all the aspects of teaching whereas the Book and Divine Wisdom qualify all the aspects of education.
(Sahifeh-ye-Imam, Vol.9, page 306)