Description: The Biblical evidence that Muhammad is not a false prophet. Part 1: The difficulties faced in discussing biblical prophecies, and accounts of some scholars who attested that Muhammad has been alluded to in the Bible. By IslamReligion Published on 20 Feb 2006 - Last modified on 03 Oct 2011 Viewed: 127011 (daily average: 46) - Rating: 4.1 out of 5 - Rated by: 103 Printed: 3516 - Emailed: 204 - Commented on: 2 Category: Articles > Evidence Islam is Truth > Muhammad in the Bible and Other Scriptures Category: Articles > Comparative Religion > The Bible Category: Articles > The Prophet Muhammad > Evidence of His Prophethood Category: Articles > Evidence Islam is Truth > Evidence of Muhammad’s Prophethood Preliminary Issues The Bible is the sacred scripture of Judaism and Christianity. The Christian Bible consists of the Old Testament and the New Testament, with the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox versions of the Old Testament being slightly larger because of their acceptance of certain books not accepted as scripture by Protestants. The Jewish Bible includes only the books known to Christians as the Old Testament. Furthermore, the arrangements of the Jewish and Christian canons differ considerably.[1] Prophet Muhammad has been prophesized in both the Old Testament and the New Testament. Jesus and the Apostles are believed to have spoken Aramaic. Aramaic continued in wide use until about AD 650, when it was supplanted by Arabic.[2] The present day Bible is not, however, based on the Aramaic manuscripts, but on Greek and Latin versions. Quoting the Bible prophecies does not entail that Muslims accept the present day Bible in its entirety as God’s revelation. For the Islamic belief on previous scriptures, please click here. It is not a pre-condition of acceptance that a prophet be foretold by an earlier prophet. Moses was a prophet to Pharaoh even though he was not prophesized by anyone before him. Abraham was God’s prophet to Nimrod, yet no one prophesized his coming. Noah, Lot, and others were true prophets of God, yet they were not foretold. The evidence of a prophet’s truth is not limited to old prophecies, but it includes the actual message brought by him, miracles and more. Discussing prophecies is a delicate matter. It requires sifting through Bible versions and translations, recently discovered manuscripts and searching out Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic words and investigating them. The task becomes especially difficult when: “prior to the printing press (15th century), all copies of Bibles show textual variations.”[3] This is not an easy subject for lay people. For this reason, the best testimony comes from ancient and modern experts in the area who acknowledged the prophecies. We have records of early Jews and Christians, both monks and rabbis, who witnessed that Muhammad was the fulfillment of specific Bible prophecies. The following are some examples of these people. The Awaited Prophet Pre-Islam Jews and Christians of Arabia were awaiting a prophet. Before the appearance of Muhammad, Arabia was home to Jews, Christians, and pagan Arabs who, on occasion, went to war with each other. The Jews and Christians would say: “The time has come for the unlettered prophet to appear who will revive the religion of Abraham. We will join his ranks and wage fierce war against you.” When Muhammad actually appeared, some of them believed in him, and some refused. This is why God revealed: “And when there came to them a Book [Quran] from God confirming that which was with them – although before they used to pray for victory against those who disbelieved – but [then] when there came to them that which they recognized, they disbelieved in it; so the curse of God will be upon the disbelievers.” (Quran 2:89) The first witness was Buhaira, the Christian monk, who recognized Muhammad’s prophethood when he was still young and told his uncle: “…a great fortune lies before your nephew, so take him home quickly.”[4] The second witness was Waraqah bin Nawfal, a Christian scholar who died soon after a solitary meeting with Muhammad. Waraqah attested Muhammad was the Prophet of his time and received revelation exactly like Moses and Jesus.[5] The Jews of Medina were anxiously awaiting the arrival of a prophet. The third and fourth witnesses were their two famous Jewish rabbis, Abdullah bin Salam and Mukhayriq.[6] The sixth and seventh witnesses were also Yemeni Jewish rabbis, Wahb ibn Munabbih, and Ka’b al-Ahbar (d. 656 CE). Ka’b found long passages of praise and the description of the Prophet prophesized by Moses in the Bible.[7] The Quran states: “Is it not a sign to them that the learned men of the Children of Israel knew it (as true)?” (Quran 26:197) Footnotes: [1] “Bible.” Encyclopædia Britannica from Encyclopædia Britannica Premium Service. (britannica/eb/article-9079096) [2] “Aramaic language.” Encyclopædia Britannica from Encyclopædia Britannica Premium Service. (britannica/eb/article-9009190) [3] “biblical literature.” Encyclopædia Britannica from Encyclopædia Britannica Premium Service. (britannica/eb/article-73396) [4] ‘Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources’ by Martin Lings, p. 29. ‘Sirat Rasul Allah’ by Ibn Ishaq translated by A. Guillame, p. 79-81. ‘The Quran And The Gospels: A Comparative Study,’ p. 46 by Dr. Muhammad Abu Laylah of Azhar University. [5] ‘Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources’ by Martin Lings, p. 35. [6] ‘The Quran And The Gospels: A Comparative Study,’ p. 47 by Dr. Muhammad Abu Laylah of Azhar University. [7] ‘The Quran And The Gospels: A Comparative Study,’ p. 47-48 by Dr. Muhammad Abu Laylah of Azhar University. Description: The Biblical evidence that Muhammad is not a false prophet. Part 2: A discussion on the prophecy mentioned in Deuteronomy 18:18, and how Muhammad fits this prophecy more than others. By IslamReligion Published on 20 Feb 2006 - Last modified on 27 Mar 2012 Viewed: 81137 (daily average: 30) - Rating: 4.2 out of 5 - Rated by: 67 Printed: 3323 - Emailed: 105 - Commented on: 0 Category: Articles > Evidence Islam is Truth > Muhammad in the Bible and Other Scriptures Category: Articles > Comparative Religion > The Bible Category: Articles > The Prophet Muhammad > Evidence of His Prophethood Category: Articles > Evidence Islam is Truth > Evidence of Muhammad’s Prophethood Deuteronomy 18:18 “I (God) will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee (Moses), and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him.” Many Christians believe this prophecy foretold by Moses to be in regards to Jesus. Indeed Jesus was foretold in the Old Testament, but as will be clear, this prophecy does not befit him, but rather is more deserving of Muhammad, may the mercy and blessings of God be upon him. 2. The Awaited Prophet will be from the Brethren of the Jews The verse in discussion is explicit in saying that the prophet will come amongst the Brethren of the Jews. Abraham had two sons: Ishmael and Isaac. The Jews are the descendants of Isaac’s son, Jacob. The Arabs are the children of Ishmael. Thus, the Arabs are the brethren of the Jewish nation.[3] The Bible affirms: ‘And he (Ishmael) shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.’ (Genesis 16:12) ‘And he (Ishmael) died in the presence of all his brethren.’ (Genesis 25:18) The children of Isaac are the brethren of the Ishmaelites. Likewise, Muhammad is from among the brethren of the Israelites, because he was a descendant of Ishmael the son of Abraham. 3. God Will Put His Words in the Mouth of the Awaited Prophet The Quran says of Muhammad: “Neither does he speak out of his own desire: that [which he conveys to you] is but [a divine] inspiration with which he is being inspired.” (Quran 53:3-4) This is quite similar to the verse in Deuteronomy 18:15: “I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him” (Deuteronomy 18:18) The Prophet Muhammad came with a message to the whole world, and from them, the Jews. All, including the Jews, must accept his prophethood, and this is supported by the following words: “The LORD thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken.” (Deuteronomy 18:15) 4. A Warning to Rejecters The prophecy continues: Deuteronomy 18:19 “And it shall come to pass, [that] whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require [it] of him.” (in some translations: “I will be the Revenger”). Interestingly, Muslims begin every chapter of the Quran in the name of God by saying: Bismillah ir-Rahman ir-Raheem “‘In the Name of God, the Most-Merciful, the Dispenser of Grace.” The following is the account of some scholars who believed this prophecy to fit Muhammad. The First Witness Abdul-Ahad Dawud, the former Rev. David Benjamin Keldani, BD, a Roman Catholic priest of the Uniate-Chaldean sect (read his biography here). After accepting Islam, he wrote the book, ‘Muhammad in the Bible.’ He writes about this prophecy: “If these words do not apply to Muhammad, they still remain unfulfilled. Jesus himself never claimed to be the prophet alluded to. Even his disciples were of the same opinion: they looked to the second coming of Jesus for the fulfillment of the prophecy (Acts 3: 17-24). So far it is undisputed that the first coming of Jesus was not the advent of the Prophet like unto thee and his second advent can hardly fulfill the words. Jesus, as is believed by his Church, will appear as a Judge and not as a law-giver; but the promised one has to come with a “fiery law” in his right hand.”[4] The Second Witness Muhammad Asad was born Leopold Weiss in July 1900 in the city of Lvov (German Lemberg), now in Poland, then part of the Austrian Empire. He was the descendant of a long line of rabbis, a line broken by his father, who became a barrister. Asad himself received a thorough religious education that would qualify him to keep alive the family’s rabbinical tradition. He had become proficient in Hebrew at an early age and was also familiar with Aramaic. He had studied the Old Testament in the original as well as the text and commentaries of the Talmud, the Mishna and Gemara, and he had delved into the intricacies of Biblical exegesis, the Targum.[5] Commenting on the verse of the Quran: “and do not overlay the truth with falsehood, and do not knowingly suppress the truth” (Quran 2:42) Muhammad Asad writes: “By ‘overlaying the truth with falsehood’ is meant the corrupting of the biblical text, of which the Quran frequently accuses the Jews (and which has since been established by objective textual criticism), while the ‘suppression of the truth’ refers to their disregard or deliberately false interpretation of the words of Moses in the biblical passage, ‘The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken’ (Deuteronomy 18:15), and the words attributed to God himself, ‘I will raise them up a prophet from among thy brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth’ (Deuteronomy 18:18). The ‘brethren’ of the children of Israel are obviously the Arabs, and particularly the musta’ribah (‘Arabianized’) group among them, which traces its descent to Ishmael and Abraham: and since it is this group that the Arabian Prophet’s own tribe, the Quraish, belonged, the above biblical passages must be taken as referring to his advent.”[6] Footnotes: [1] “He (Jesus) came unto his own, but his own received him not” (John 1:11) [2] John 18:36. [3] ‘Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources’ by Martin Lings, p. 1-7. [4] Ibid, p. 156 [5] ‘Berlin to Makkah: Muhammad Asad’s Journey into Islam’ by Ismail Ibrahim Nawwab in the January/February 2002 issue of Saudi Aramco Magazine. [6] Muhammad Asad, ‘The Message of The Quran’ (Gibraltar: Dar al-Andalus, 1984), p. 10-11. Description: The Biblical evidence that Muhammad is not a false prophet. Part 3: A discussion on the prophecy mentioned in John 14:16 of the Paraclete, or “Comforter”, and how Muhammad fits this prophecy more than others. By IslamReligion Published on 20 Feb 2006 - Last modified on 03 Oct 2011 Viewed: 65021 (daily average: 24) - Rating: 4 out of 5 - Rated by: 46 Printed: 3036 - Emailed: 72 - Commented on: 0 Category: Articles > Evidence Islam is Truth > Muhammad in the Bible and Other Scriptures Category: Articles > Comparative Religion > The Bible Category: Articles > The Prophet Muhammad > Evidence of His Prophethood Category: Articles > Evidence Islam is Truth > Evidence of Muhammad’s Prophethood John 14:16 “And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever.” (American Standard Version) In this verse, Jesus promises that another “Comforter” will appear, and thus, we must discuss some issues concerning this “Comforter.” The Greek word paravklhtoß, ho parakletos, has been translated as ‘Comforter.’ Parakletos more precisely means ‘one who pleads another’s cause, an intercessor.’[1] The ho parakletos is a person in the Greek language, not an incorporeal entity. In the Greek language, every noun possesses gender; that is, it is masculine, feminine or neutral. In the Gospel of John, Chapters 14, 15 and 16 the ho parakletos is actually a person. All pronouns in Greek must agree in gender with the word to which they refer and the pronoun “he” is used when referring to the parakletos. The NT uses the word pneuma, which means “breath” or “spirit,” the Greek equivalent of ruah, the Hebrew word for “spirit” used in the OT. Pneuma is a grammatically neutral word and is always represented by the pronoun “it.” All present day Bibles are compiled from “ancient manuscripts,” the oldest dating back the fourth century C.E. No two ancient manuscripts are identical.[2] All Bibles today are produced by combining manuscripts with no single definitive reference. The Bible translators attempt to “choose” the correct version. In other words, since they do not know which “ancient manuscript” is the correct one, they decide for us which “version” for a given verse to accept. Take John 14:26 as an example. John 14:26 is the only verse of the Bible which associates the Parakletos with the Holy Spirit. But the “ancient manuscripts” are not in agreement that the “Parakletos” is the ‘Holy Spirit.’ For instance, the famous Codex Syriacus, written around the fifth century C.E., and discovered in 1812 on Mount Sinai, the text of 14:26 reads; “Paraclete, the Spirit”; and not “Paraclete, the Holy Spirit.” Why is it important? It is significant because in biblical language a “spirit,” simply means “a prophet.” “Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.”[3] It is instructive to know that several biblical scholars considered parakletos to be an ‘independent salvific (having the power to save) figure,’ not the Holy Ghost.[4] The question, then, is: was Jesus’ parakletos, Comforter, a ‘Holy Ghost’ or a person - a prophet - to come after him? To answer the question, we must understand the description of ho parakletos and see if it fits a ghost or a human being. When we continue reading beyond chapter 14:16 and chapter 16:7, we find that Jesus predicts the specific details of the arrival and identity of the parakletos. Therefore, according to the context of John 14 & 16 we discover the following facts. 1. Jesus said the parakletos is a human being: John 16:13 “He will speak.” John 16:7 “…for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you.” It is impossible that the Comforter be the “Holy Ghost” because the Holy Ghost was present long before Jesus and during his ministry.[5] John 16:13 Jesus referred to the paraclete as ‘he’ and not ‘it’ seven times, no other verse in the Bible contains seven masculine pronouns. Therefore, paraclete is a person, not a ghost. 2. Jesus is called a parakletos: “And if any man sin, we have an advocate (parakletos) with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” (1 John 2:1) Here we see that parakletos is a physical and human intercessor. 3. The Divinity of Jesus a later innovation Jesus was not accepted as divine until the Council of Nicea, 325 CE, but everyone, except Jews, agree he was a prophet of God, as indicated by the Bible: Matthew 21:11 “...This is Jesus the prophet of Nazareth of Galilee.” Luke 24:19 “...Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people.” 4. Jesus prayed to God for another parakletos: John 14:16 “And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another parakletos.” Footnotes: [1] Vine’s Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words. [2] “Besides the larger discrepancies, such as these, there is scarcely a verse in which there is not some variation of phrase in some copies [of the ancient manuscripts from which the Bible has been collected]. No one can say that these additions or omissions or alterations are matters of mere indifference.” ‘Our Bible and the Ancient Manuscripts,’ by Dr. Frederic Kenyon, Eyre and Spottiswoode, p. 3. [3] 1 John 4: 1-3 [4] ‘...Christian tradition has identified this figure (Paraclete) as the Holy Spirit, but scholars like Spitta, Delafosse, Windisch, Sasse, Bultmann, and Betz have doubted whether this identification is true to the original picture and have suggested that the Paraclete was once an independent salvific figure, later confused with the Holy Spirit.” ‘the Anchor Bible, Doubleday & Company, Inc, Garden City, N.Y. 1970, Volume 29A, p. 1135. [5] Genesis 1: 2, 1 Samuel 10: 10, 1 Samuel 11: 6, Isaiah 63: 11, Luke 1: 15, Luke 1: 35, Luke 1: 41, Luke 1: 67, Luke 2: 25, Luke 2: 26, Luke 3:22, John 20: 21-22. Font size: Increase the font size of this article Default font size Decrease the font size of this article Jump to article tools Bible Prophecies of Muhammad (part 3 of 4): New Testament Prophecies of Muhammad Description: The Biblical evidence that Muhammad is not a false prophet. Part 3: A discussion on the prophecy mentioned in John 14:16 of the Paraclete, or “Comforter”, and how Muhammad fits this prophecy more than others. By IslamReligion Published on 20 Feb 2006 - Last modified on 03 Oct 2011 Viewed: 65021 (daily average: 24) - Rating: 4 out of 5 - Rated by: 46 Printed: 3036 - Emailed: 72 - Commented on: 0 Category: Articles > Evidence Islam is Truth > Muhammad in the Bible and Other Scriptures Category: Articles > Comparative Religion > The Bible Category: Articles > The Prophet Muhammad > Evidence of His Prophethood Category: Articles > Evidence Islam is Truth > Evidence of Muhammad’s Prophethood John 14:16 “And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever.” (American Standard Version) In this verse, Jesus promises that another “Comforter” will appear, and thus, we must discuss some issues concerning this “Comforter.” The Greek word paravklhtoß, ho parakletos, has been translated as ‘Comforter.’ Parakletos more precisely means ‘one who pleads another’s cause, an intercessor.’[1] The ho parakletos is a person in the Greek language, not an incorporeal entity. In the Greek language, every noun possesses gender; that is, it is masculine, feminine or neutral. In the Gospel of John, Chapters 14, 15 and 16 the ho parakletos is actually a person. All pronouns in Greek must agree in gender with the word to which they refer and the pronoun “he” is used when referring to the parakletos. The NT uses the word pneuma, which means “breath” or “spirit,” the Greek equivalent of ruah, the Hebrew word for “spirit” used in the OT. Pneuma is a grammatically neutral word and is always represented by the pronoun “it.” All present day Bibles are compiled from “ancient manuscripts,” the oldest dating back the fourth century C.E. No two ancient manuscripts are identical.[2] All Bibles today are produced by combining manuscripts with no single definitive reference. The Bible translators attempt to “choose” the correct version. In other words, since they do not know which “ancient manuscript” is the correct one, they decide for us which “version” for a given verse to accept. Take John 14:26 as an example. John 14:26 is the only verse of the Bible which associates the Parakletos with the Holy Spirit. But the “ancient manuscripts” are not in agreement that the “Parakletos” is the ‘Holy Spirit.’ For instance, the famous Codex Syriacus, written around the fifth century C.E., and discovered in 1812 on Mount Sinai, the text of 14:26 reads; “Paraclete, the Spirit”; and not “Paraclete, the Holy Spirit.” Why is it important? It is significant because in biblical language a “spirit,” simply means “a prophet.” “Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.”[3] It is instructive to know that several biblical scholars considered parakletos to be an ‘independent salvific (having the power to save) figure,’ not the Holy Ghost.[4] The question, then, is: was Jesus’ parakletos, Comforter, a ‘Holy Ghost’ or a person - a prophet - to come after him? To answer the question, we must understand the description of ho parakletos and see if it fits a ghost or a human being. When we continue reading beyond chapter 14:16 and chapter 16:7, we find that Jesus predicts the specific details of the arrival and identity of the parakletos. Therefore, according to the context of John 14 & 16 we discover the following facts. 1. Jesus said the parakletos is a human being: John 16:13 “He will speak.” John 16:7 “…for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you.” It is impossible that the Comforter be the “Holy Ghost” because the Holy Ghost was present long before Jesus and during his ministry.[5] John 16:13 Jesus referred to the paraclete as ‘he’ and not ‘it’ seven times, no other verse in the Bible contains seven masculine pronouns. Therefore, paraclete is a person, not a ghost. 2. Jesus is called a parakletos: “And if any man sin, we have an advocate (parakletos) with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” (1 John 2:1) Here we see that parakletos is a physical and human intercessor. 3. The Divinity of Jesus a later innovation Jesus was not accepted as divine until the Council of Nicea, 325 CE, but everyone, except Jews, agree he was a prophet of God, as indicated by the Bible: Matthew 21:11 “...This is Jesus the prophet of Nazareth of Galilee.” Luke 24:19 “...Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people.” 4. Jesus prayed to God for another parakletos: John 14:16 “And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another parakletos.” Footnotes: [1] Vine’s Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words. [2] “Besides the larger discrepancies, such as these, there is scarcely a verse in which there is not some variation of phrase in some copies [of the ancient manuscripts from which the Bible has been collected]. No one can say that these additions or omissions or alterations are matters of mere indifference.” ‘Our Bible and the Ancient Manuscripts,’ by Dr. Frederic Kenyon, Eyre and Spottiswoode, p. 3. [3] 1 John 4: 1-3 [4] ‘...Christian tradition has identified this figure (Paraclete) as the Holy Spirit, but scholars like Spitta, Delafosse, Windisch, Sasse, Bultmann, and Betz have doubted whether this identification is true to the original picture and have suggested that the Paraclete was once an independent salvific figure, later confused with the Holy Spirit.” ‘the Anchor Bible, Doubleday & Company, Inc, Garden City, N.Y. 1970, Volume 29A, p. 1135. [5] Genesis 1: 2, 1 Samuel 10: 10, 1 Samuel 11: 6, Isaiah 63: 11, Luke 1: 15, Luke 1: 35, Luke 1: 41, Luke 1: 67, Luke 2: 25, Luke 2: 26, Luke 3:22, John 20: 21-22.
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