'If thou wert in doubt as to what We have revealed unto thee, then ask those who have been
reading the Book from before thee....' (Surah,
10, Yunus, verse 94)
MUHAMMAD (P.B.U.H.) NOT
FORETOLD IN THE BIBLE
A. Abraham
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1. INTRODUCTION
2. VERSES MISINTERPRETED BY MUSLIMS
-Genesis 12:1-3;
-Deuteronomy 18:14-20, 33:1-2, 34:10
-Song of Songs 5:16
-Isaiah 21:13-17, 28:9-11, 42:1-2,11
-Habakkuk 3:3
-John 1:20-21, 6:7
3. CONCLUSION
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1. INTRODUCTION
According to Surah 7, Al A'raf, verse 157,
Muhammad (p.b.u.h.) the prophet of Islam is foretold
in the Torah and the Gospel. However, a closer look at the context of the
Biblical passages commonly referred to by Muslims, will show that they cannot
be interpreted that way. The quotes are all taken from the N.I.V. translation
of the Bible.
2. VERSES MISINTERPRETED
BY MUSLIMS
Genesis 12:1-3
The Lord had said to
Abram, '...I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will
make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless
you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be
blessed through you.'
Dr. Jamal Badawi and some other Muslims claim that God would bless
the whole earth through Muhammad (p.b.u.h) the
descendant of Ishmael. (see 'What the Bible says about
Muhammad', IPCI, pages 26-27) After all, he was the firstborn to Abraham through
Hagar, an Egyptian maidservant, and the traditional rights the first son had as
heir is, according to the law, not depending on the social status of his
mother. However, the Bible is very clear in saying that God, by his sovereign
choice, would fulfil his covenant through the seed of Isaac, the son given to
Sarah, Abraham's first wife:
And Abraham said to God,
'If only Ishmael might live under your blessing!' Then God said, 'Yes, but your
wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you will call him Isaac. I will establish
my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him. And
as for Ishmael, I have heard you: I will surely bless him; I will make him
fruitful and will greatly increase his numbers. He will be the father of twelve
rulers, and I will make him into a great nation. But my covenant I will
establish with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you by this time next year.' (Genesis
17: 18-21)
Deuteronomy 21:15-17
assures the rights of inheritance to the firstborn son, to the one who
literally was the first to be born. Since Abraham lived about 600 years before
God gave the Israelites this law through Moses, it is not applicable to him. This
rule was also set aside with divine approval in Jacob's and Solomon's cases. Even
in the Quran certain laws, such as to how many wives
one is allowed to marry, did not apply to Muhammad (p.b.u.h.)
The New Testament says:
'For if the inheritance
depends on the law, then it no longer depends on a promise; but God in his
grace gave it to Abraham through a promise. (Galatians 3:18,
see also 3:6-23)
Ishmael's situation also
has to be understood in the light of an ancient custom, illustrated in Old
Assyrian marriage contracts, the Code of Hammurapi
and the Nuzi tablets (mid-2nd millennium B.C.). There
we find that if a wife could not bear children to her husband, she was allowed
to give him her maidservant to provide an heir. Every legal right of a child
that was born in that way was passed on to the real wife. These laws allowed
her to turn a mother of such a child again into her former state of a servant. In
case the wife would suddenly be able to bear children she could disinherit the
child of the maidservant. This is exactly what happened to Ishmael, the son of
Abraham, born by the maidservant Hagar:
'The child grew and was
weaned, and on the day Isaac was weaned Abraham held a great feast. But Sarah
saw that the son whom Hagar the Egyptian had borne to Abraham was mocking, and
she said to Abraham, 'Get rid of that slave woman and her son, for that slave
woman's son will never share in the inheritance with my son Isaac.' The matter
distressed Abraham greatly because it concerned his son. But God said to him,
'Do not be so distressed about the boy and your maidservant. Listen to whatever
Sarah tells you, because it is through Isaac that your offspring will be
reckoned. I will make the son of the maidservant into a nation also,
because he is your offspring.' (Genesis 21:8-13, see
also 25: 1-6)
God in his sovereignty
chose to bless the whole world through Isaac's line. Surah
29, Al 'Ankabut, verse 27 (see also Surah 45, Al Jathiyah, verse 16)
confirms this by stating that the prophethood and the
scripture are to be found in Isaac's and Jacob's line, with the children of
Israel. Nowhere in the Quran is it written that from
Ishmael's seed too there would one day rise up a prophet. As seen above, this
is confirmed in Genesis 17:20-21 where we read that God will fulfil his
covenant through Isaac only. God remains faithful to his promise even though
the Israelites have disobeyed him many times during their history. They were
and are being severely punished for their stubbornness, yet God has still not
chosen to reveal himself through prophets coming from outside the line of Isaac
and Jacob. The following verse verifies this:
But
Deuteronomy 18:14-20
'The nations you will
dispossess listen to those who practice sorcery or divination. But as for you,
the Lord your God has not permitted you to do so. The Lord your God will raise
up for you a prophet like me (Moses) from among your own brothers. You must
listen to him. For this is what you asked of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said, 'Let us not
hear the voice of the Lord our God nor see this great fire anymore, or we will
die.' The Lord said to me: 'What they say is good. I will raise up for them a
prophet like you from among their brothers; I will put my words in his mouth
and he will tell them everything I command him. If anyone does not listen to my
words that the prophet speaks in my name, I myself will call him to account. But
a prophet who presumes to speak in my name anything I have not commanded him to
say, or a prophet who speaks in the name of other gods, must be put to death.'
Because Ishmael was Isaac's
half-brother, Muslims interpret the words 'from among your own brothers' to
mean 'from among the descendants of Ishmael.' They conclude that since Muhammad
(p.b.u.h) was a descendant of the Ishmaelites
this prophecy must speak about him. The preceding chapter shows clearly that
this is not the case. By defining the very words on which the Muslim argument
is built we will see that they refer to a brother Israelite not to a brother
Ishmaelite:
'Be sure to appoint over
you the king the Lord your God chooses. He must be from among your own
brothers. Do not place a foreigner over you, one who is not a brother
Israelite. (Deuteronomy 17:15)
Even though this verse
refers to a different incident, nevertheless the words under question are used
again. It is a normal exegetic procedure to define a phrase according to how it
is used in the close context, especially so if it is explained there. When it
comes to a choice between accepting the interpretation of men or the Bible the
latter must naturally be given preference. This explanation is the only one
that can be accepted in the light of Deuteronomy 18:14. There Moses tells his
brothers, the Israelites, not to follow the detestable practices of the nations
in regard to having contact with the supernatural world. At that time everybody
else, including the Ishmaelites, belonged to those
nations! Therefore, if verse 15 would refer to a prophet coming from the Ishmaelites, this surely would have been clearly stated! The
verses 20-22 (they mention the criteria for "a" not "the"
true prophet) which follow after Deuteronomy
'...Jesus must remain in
heaven until the time comes for God to restore everything, as he promised long
ago through his holy prophets. For Moses said, 'The Lord your God will raise up
for you a prophet like me from among your own people; you must listen to
everything he tells you'...When God raised up his servant, he sent him first to
you...'
John
After the people saw the
miraculous sign that Jesus did, they began to say, 'Surely this is the Prophet
who is to come into the world.'
If the words in Deuteronomy
18 '...a prophet like me...' are not examined in relation to their neighbouring
verses, as explained above, they give raise to all kinds of speculations. Some
Muslims say Muhammad (p.b.u.h.) was like Moses
because, unlike Jesus, they both had a father and a mother, both where born in
a natural way, both married and had children, etc. What
they fail to conclude is that many prophets can be paralleled to Moses in some
things but not in others. One could just as well say Jesus was the promised
prophet because, like Moses but unlike Muhammad (p.b.u.h.),
he was saved from death as a baby (Exodus 1:17, 2:2-10, Matthew 2:16),
transfigured (Exodus 34:29, Matthew 17:1-7), preached about sacrifice being the
way to get forgiveness of sins (Leviticus 4, Matthew 26:28, Hebrews 9:22), and
called himself a Jewish prophet (Luke 4:16-24); Jesus too spoke in God's name
(John 17:8) and performed many miraculous signs (See also Luke 8:48-55) In
contrast to him, there is no sign recorded of Muhammad (p.b.u.h)
in the Holy Quran that would be accepted as such by
his enemies:
The Unbelievers say,
'Why is not a Sign sent down to him from his Lord?" Say, "Truly Allah
leaveth, to stray, whom He will; But He guideth to Himself those who turn to Him in penitence.." (Surah 13, Al Ra'd, verse 27, see also verse 31)
To say that the Quran was a miracle given to Muhammad (p.b.u.h.)
is unreasonable because many could write a piece of literature and then claim
it miraculously came from God. Neither its poetic beauty nor the fact that it
has been faithfully recorded down the ages would support such a claim. Otherwise,
Shakespeare who wrote the best English prose and whose work has not suffered
any change could be called a prophet of God as well in a few hundred years.
The phrase, '...I will put
my words in his mouth...' (verse 18), is used when
other prophets are mentioned, such as Jeremiah (1:9) or Balaam (Numbers
Deuteronomy 33:1-2
This is the blessing
that Moses the man of God pronounced on the Israelites before his death. He
said: 'The Lord came from Sinai and dawned over them from Seir,
he shone forth from
Bashir Ahmad claims that verse two speaks
about three different manifestations of God's glory. ('The Holy Quran' with English Translation and Commentary", by Bashir Ahamad, second head of the
Ahmadiyya community, Islam International
Publications, Tilford,
Deuteronomy 34:10
'Since then, no prophet
has risen in
This verse can not be taken
to mean that the promised prophet was to come from outside
Song of Songs 5:16
'His mouth is sweetness
itself; he is altogether lovely. This is my lover, this is my friend...'
Some Muslims claim that
Muhammad (p.b.u.h.) is mentioned in this passage. The
Hebrew word for 'altogether lovely' is 'Mahammaddim'.
The plural ending 'im', also known as the royal
plural, is allegedly given to pay the respect that is due to the prophet of
Islam. Dr. Alex Luc, an eminent Hebrew scholar at the well-known Columbia
Biblical Seminary in U.S.A has this to say about the argument: 'The word under
consideration is plural. So is the word 'sweetness' in that verse. It is not to
be labelled as royal plural like 'elohim (God);
rather, it is common for abstract nouns or adjectives to be in a Hebrew plural
form, e.g., 'adulterous' in Hosea 1:2 is plural, so is a 'faithful' man in
Proverbs 28:20 and 'understanding' in Isaiah 27:11. Even allowing the way the
Muslims are turning a non-prophetic text into a prophetic one, they will face
the great challenge to see the Hebrew word 'Mahammaddim'
as Muhammad, a term usually used in a negative context, representing something
destroyed and punished because of God's wrath on his people.' (Isaiah 64:11;
Hosea 9:16; Lamentations 2:4)
It can also not be said
that the same word used in two different languages has the same meaning. The
word 'bank' for example has different signification in English. However none of
them can be compared to one of the meanings given in the German language. There
the word 'bank' can also be used to describe a bench to sit upon. Usually only what
comes before or after a word will determine what it is intended to communicate.
Song of Songs 5:10-16 describe the man's beauty in poetic terms. The words
'altogether lovely' in verse 16 are used to summarize verses 10-15. He who
still thinks verse 16 applies to Muhammad (p.b.u.h.)
will have to explain verse one of the same chapter. It refers to the one who is
called 'altogether lovely' in verse 16 and describes him as someone who has
drunk wine! This, according to Islam, is considered to be a great sin!
Isaiah 21:13-17
'An oracle concerning
This passage describes,
according to Badawi, the incident of the migration of
the prophet and the battle of Badr. (Ibid. page 29)
But the departure of Muhammad (p.b.u.h) took place on
Isaiah 28:9-11
'Who is it he is trying
to teach? To whom is he explaining his message? To children weaned from their
milk, to those just taken from the breast? For it is: Do and do, do and do,
rule on rule, rule on rule a little here, a little there.' Very well then, with
foreign lips and strange tongues God will speak to this people..'
Badawi wants to make his readers believe
that the 'strange' (other translations have 'stammering') tongues, describe
Muhammad's (p.b.u.h.) '...state of tension and
concentration he went through at the time of revelation.' The words 'a little
here, a little there' supposedly speak about the Quran
which was revealed in piece meals over a span of twenty three years. ('What the
Bible says about Muhammad', IPCI, page 29) In reality these verses are part of
a prophecy against
Isaiah 29:10-13
'The Lord has brought
over you a deep sleep: He has sealed your eyes (the prophets); he has covered
your heads (the seers). 11 For you this whole vision is nothing but words
sealed in a scroll. And if you give the scroll to someone who can read, and say
to him, 'Read this, please,' he will answer, 'I can't; it is sealed.' 12 Or if
you give the scroll to someone who cannot read, and say, 'Read this, please,'
he will answer, 'I don't know how to read.' 13 The Lord says: 'These people
come near to me with their mouth and honour me with their lips, but their
hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by
men.'
Ahmed Deedat
singles out Isaiah 29:12 in an attempt to make it look like a prophecy about
Muhammad (p.b.u.h.) After all, he used the same words
when first confronted with revelation by the angel Gabriel. (Ibid, page 15) A
closer look at the whole chapter 29 shows that the subject under consideration
is God's judgement on the disobedient people of
Isaiah 42:1-2,11
'Here is my servant,
whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight: I will put my Spirit on him and
he will bring justice to the nations...Let the desert and its towns raise their
voices; let the settlement where Kedar lives rejoice.
Let the people of Sela sing for joy...'
In another desperate
attempt to find the messenger of Islam foretold in the Bible, Dr. Badawi tries to apply the verses above to him. He connects
the awaited one as coming from the descendants of Kedar,
the second son of Ishmael, the ancestor of prophet
Muhammad. (Ibid, page 28) What he fails to see is that the first two verses are
applied to Jesus in Matthew 12:15-21! Badawi does not
mention that Isaiah 42:11 also speaks about the people of Sela,
the capital of the Edomites whose father was Esau
(Genesis 25:29-30), son of Isaac! Both people will rejoice not because the
Saviour came from them but to them!
Habakkuk 3:3
'God came from Teman, the Holy One from
Dr. Badawi
thinks that the Holy One to appear from the
Let us now look into the
passage of the Gospel that is supposedly speaking about the coming of Muhammad
(p.b.u.h):
John 1:20-21
'He (John the Baptist)
did not fail to confess but confessed freely, 'I am not the Christ.' They asked
him, 'Then who are you? Are you Elijah?' He said, 'I am not.' 'Are you the prophet?'
He answered, 'No'.
Ahmed Deedat
believes this verse to be a sign that Jesus is not the prophet who was to come
since it speaks about three different persons. ('What the Bible says about
Muhammad,' IPCI,pages 17-19)
However, John
John 16:7
'But I (Jesus) tell you
the truth: It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away the
Counsellor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.'
The Gospel was first
written down in the Greek language. The argument is put forward that the Greek
word for 'Counsellor', 'paracletos', is very similar
to the word 'periclytos' that can be translated 'the
praised one.' Because this is the meaning of the name 'Muhammad' it is
concluded that three letters were altered and Jesus was really speaking about
the prophet of Islam. However, there is not even one Greek manuscript with the
word 'periclytos' in existence. This truth is further
confirmed by looking at the circumstances in which the word 'Counsellor' is
used. About him we read in the verse quoted above, that Jesus sends him, in His
name. Certainly, every Muslim believes that his prophet was sent by Allah
rather than by Jesus or in His name!
'And I will ask the
Father and he will give you another Counsellor to be with you forever- the
Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him because it neither sees him nor
knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you...But the
Counsellor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name will teach
you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.' (John
14:16,17,26)
Muhammad (p.b.u.h) has not remained with us forever; he is nowhere
called the Spirit of truth; the world has seen him; he has not lived with the
disciples and he will not live in them! It is impossible to spiritualize all
these marks of recognition of the Counsellor, especially in the light of the
above definition of the Counsellor, being the Holy Spirit!
The Ahmadiyya
Muslim community has a few more passages through which they try to claim that
Muhammad (p.b.u.h.) is found in the Bible. They are
not so well known to other Muslims and are therefore dealt with in a separate
article entitled, 'Ahmadiyya Muslim claims answered.'
It can be ordered below.
12. CONCLUSION
There is no prediction
about Muhammad (p.b.u.h.) found in the Bible. Therefore
Muslims are left with no Biblical evidence that would validate the authority of
their prophet. This problem leads to another difficulty that is just as
serious. It is described in Surah 4, Al Nisa, verse 82:
'Do they not consider
the Quran (with care)? Had it been from other than
Allah, they would surely have found therein much discrepancy.
Since the Quran says Muhammad (p.b.u.h.) is
foretold in the Bible but as this study clearly shows, he is not, we are faced
with the fact that this is a contradiction!
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