The Prophet in the Quran
The Quran gives the Prophet three titles that frame everything else: seal of the prophets, mercy to the worlds, and a man of lofty character. He is not described as the founder of a new religion but as the one who renews the message given to earlier messengers.
His mission is stated as a task rather than a status: reciting the signs of God, purifying those who respond, and teaching them the Book and the wisdom they did not know. That threefold description is the clearest Quranic answer to what a prophet is for, and it is why learning is treated as an act of religion in this tradition rather than an accessory to it.
The earliest written sira was composed roughly a century after his death, so details beyond the Quran and the most widely transmitted reports carry the assumptions of their compilers. This academy reads the Quranic portrait as primary, names a biographical source when it uses one, and refuses to smooth disagreements between sources into a single confident narrative.
Quran
مَّا كَانَ مُحَمَّدٌ أَبَآ أَحَدٍۢ مِّن رِّجَالِكُمْ وَلَٰكِن رَّسُولَ ٱللَّهِ وَخَاتَمَ ٱلنَّبِيِّۦنَ ۗ وَكَانَ ٱللَّهُ بِكُلِّ شَىْءٍ عَلِيمًۭا
Muhammad is not the father of [any] one of your men, but [he is] the Messenger of Allah and last of the prophets. And ever is Allah, of all things, Knowing.
وَمَآ أَرْسَلْنَٰكَ إِلَّا رَحْمَةًۭ لِّلْعَٰلَمِينَ
And We have not sent you, [O Muhammad], except as a mercy to the worlds.
وَإِنَّكَ لَعَلَىٰ خُلُقٍ عَظِيمٍۢ
And indeed, you are of a great moral character.
هُوَ ٱلَّذِى بَعَثَ فِى ٱلْأُمِّيِّۦنَ رَسُولًۭا مِّنْهُمْ يَتْلُوا۟ عَلَيْهِمْ ءَايَٰتِهِۦ وَيُزَكِّيهِمْ وَيُعَلِّمُهُمُ ٱلْكِتَٰبَ وَٱلْحِكْمَةَ وَإِن كَانُوا۟ مِن قَبْلُ لَفِى ضَلَٰلٍۢ مُّبِينٍۢ
It is He who has sent among the unlettered a Messenger from themselves reciting to them His verses and purifying them and teaching them the Book and wisdom - although they were before in clear error -