‘We
Muslims believe that Jesus was a prophet. Why don’t you Christians recognize
Muhammad as a prophet?’
‘If
we recognized Muhammad as a prophet, we would be Muslims, not Christians.’
‘Yes
but your Bible speaks of Muhammad. Jesus Himself predicted his coming.’
‘Here
is a Bible, can you tell me where it mentions
Muhammad?’
‘I
don’t know, but the Qur’an says he is predicted in your Bible!’
For
many years, Muslim apologists have tried to find predictions of Muhammad’s coming
in the Tawrat, Zabur and Injil, but to no avail. This chapter will examine
three main passages that are referred to as supposed predictions of the coming
of Muhammad.
I.
Is Muhammad mentioned in the Tawrat?
Muslims refer to Deuteronomy 18:18
(Tawrat) where God says to Moses, “I will raise up for
them a Prophet like you from among their brethren, and will put My words in His
mouth, and He shall speak to them all that I command Him.”
Muslims believe that this prophet was
Muhammad. Abraham had two sons; Ishmael and Isaac. It is assumed that ‘their
brethren’ refers to the Ishmaelites, and since Muhammad was descended
from Ishmael, he must be the prophet. However, a brief look at the background
of the prophecy reveals that it was not the Ishmaelites who were in mind.
Who is God
referring to with the words "them" and "their"?
My
father used to work as an Arabic teacher. He often helped me with my Arabic
homework. Whenever I asked him about the meaning of a word he would tell me to
read the whole sentence or paragraph. I usually discovered the meaning myself
just by reading the word in context! This is exactly what we must do when we
read the Bible. We can’t just pick a word or paragraph out of context and make
it say what we want. We must look at the whole context.
This
prophecy is part of a discourse in which God gave Moses certain directions
about the way the people of
It
is clear that God is talking about the Levites. ‘Their brethren’ are the other
tribes of
Who then fits the description of a prophet like Moses? Jesus Christ
does. The New Testament (Injil) as a whole makes it plain that Moses’
prophecy in Deuteronomy Chapter 18 was fulfilled in Jesus Christ of Nazareth.
Jesus Himself said, “if
you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote about Me” (John
In the Gospel of John 1:45, we read
words spoken by the apostle Philip: “We have found Him of
whom Moses in the law, and also the prophets, wrote—Jesus of Nazareth.” Jesus was born of the tribe of
In Acts chapter 7 of the New
Testament, Stephen says clearly that Moses foretold Jesus Christ. The apostle
Peter declares the same thing in Acts 3:19-23, “Repent
therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of
refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that He may send Jesus
Christ, who was preached to you before, whom heaven must receive until the
times of restoration of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all
His holy prophets since the world began. For Moses truly said to the fathers,
‘The Lord your God will raise up
for you a Prophet like me from your brethren. Him you shall hear in all things,
whatever He says to you. And it shall be that every soul who will not hear that
Prophet shall be utterly destroyed from among the people.’”
II. Are there predictions of Muhammad in
any other part of the Old Testament?
A second verse that Muslim
apologists refer to in support of their claims is Isaiah 29:12 – “Then
the book is delivered to one who is illiterate, saying, ‘Read this, please.’
And he says, ‘I am not literate.’” Muslims
insist that: (a) the book referred to in this verse is the Qur’an; (b) the one
to whom the book is delivered is Muhammad; and (c) the one who orders Muhammad
to read the book is Gabriel. They suggest that Muhammad fits the description of
this individual, since he was illiterate when the angel Gabriel revealed the
words of Allah to him.
Once
again we must not take the words out of their context. To understand the
context of the verse, we must remember that Isaiah (who lived in the 8th
century B.C.) is known as the ‘messianic prophet’ because he prophesied so many
details about Jesus Christ—not Muhammad. In Isaiah 29 God pronounces judgements on
The passage indicates that within a year, the great Assyrian king Sennacherib
would lay siege to Jerusalem (vs. 3).
God’s people were in deliberate spiritual blindness. To them the Bible was a
closed book, and
The
point is that the people of Isaiah’s day refused to pay attention to God’s Holy
Word as spoken through His prophets. They did not want it! Verses 13-16 explain
that because of their closed minds, they will suffer for their rejection of
God’s Word when the Assyrians arrive to besiege the city, but, as usual, God
reveals a better day when people will listen (vs. 17ff.).
Having
examined the context, it is evident that these verses have nothing to do with
Muhammad!
III. Is there a prophecy
about Muhammad in the Injil?
‘According
to your Bible, didn’t Jesus speak of a prophet to come whom he called the
Helper? This is obviously a prophecy about Muhammad.’
Muslims often make this claim.
After all, the Qur’an declares, “And when Jesus son of Mary said: O Children of Israel! Lo! I am the
messenger of Allah unto you, confirming that which was (revealed) before me in
the Torah, and bringing good tidings of a messenger who cometh after me, whose
name is Ahmad (the Praised One)” (Qur'an 61:6).
Muslims appeal to verses like John
14:16-20, where Jesus says, “And I will pray the Father, and He will give you
another Helper..” Most
Muslims quote only the first half of this verse, and then shut the Bible!
If Jesus stopped at this point, one could speculate about the identity of this
Helper. But Jesus clearly identifies Him by continuing, “that
He (the Helper) may abide with you forever - the Spirit of truth, whom the
world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know
Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.”
From
the earliest centuries of Islam, Muslim scholars have endeavoured to prove that
this Helper was Muhammad, the prophet of Islam. It is argued that the Greek
word paracletos, which is translated
‘Helper,’ should be pareklutos or
‘praised one,’ meaning Ahmad or Muhammad. This is proof, they say, that the Biblical text has been changed! However, any
knowledgeable scholar in the field will tell you that there is no evidence at
all for this ‘corruption.’ All of the Greek manuscripts in existence, which
predate Muhammad, say parakletos, not paraklutos. There are more than 70 Greek manuscripts
of the New Testament in existence today, dating from before the time of
Muhammad, and not one of them uses the word paraklutos!
All use the word parakletos. In fact the word paraklutos does not appear anywhere in the Bible!
Let us look at the
specific details of the arrival and identity of this parakletos,
‘Helper,’ and see if they fit Muhammad:
1) He will give you another Helper
Even if, as Muslims claim, the original
word was Paraklutos, the sentence would read,
“He will give you another praised one.” It makes no sense and is completely out
of context. What Jesus is saying here is this, ‘I have been your Helper,
Counselor, Comforter. I still have many things to teach you, but I will send
you another Helper like me.’
2) He will give you another Helper - The Spirit of
Truth
The one obvious fact that emerges
is that the Helper is a Spirit. Has Muhammad ever been
called the Spirit of Truth?
3) He will abide with you forever
In
no sense was Muhammad ever with Jesus’ disciples, let alone permanently. Muhammad
was born in the 7th century after Christ. He lived only 62 years and
then died. He did not live with his companions forever, did he? His body was
buried in
4) The Spirit of Truth whom the
world cannot see
According
to this prophecy, the world cannot receive the Helper because it can’t see Him.
Thousands of people saw Muhammad during his lifetime, for he was visible. The invisible Helper cannot be the visible Muhammad.
5) You know Him for He dwells with you
Jesus is clearly talking about someone with
whom the disciples were familiar. Was Muhammad known to them? Of course not. He was born more than five hundred years
later.
6) He dwells in you
The
Helper was to be in the disciples.
How could the Helper be Muhammad? Muhammad was a flesh and blood person who is
no longer alive. Muhammad is not in Jesus’ followers and never will
be.
What
can we conclude? Was Muhammad alive at the time of Jesus’ apostles? No. Was
Muhammad ever called the ‘Spirit of Truth’? No. Did Muhammad live with the
apostles forever? No. Did Muhammad live inside the apostles? No. This prophesy cannot be a reference to Muhammad. Who is it
about? The Bible states the truth in the following verses. “But
the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My
name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things
that I said to you.” (John 14:26). It is certain,
then, that the Helper is the Holy Spirit (Ruh
Al-Kudus) of God.
The
fulfilment of this prophecy occurred within a matter of days. Only
fifty days after the resurrection of Jesus, the disciples received the Helper
on the day of Pentecost. Jesus had told them to wait in
The
Helper is indeed the Holy Spirit of the living God. We all need Him to open our
eyes so that we can see who Jesus is and what He has done for sinners like us.
The Helper is only given to those who believe the Gospel; that Jesus died for
our sins and rose again. This is what makes someone a Christian. Only those who
believe receive the Helper. You can receive the Holy Spirit today by genuinely
inviting Jesus into your life and receiving Him as your Saviour.
Conclusion
All
of these verses, (and others that Muslims refer to), can be understood with a
little study and consideration of the context. Those who apply these passages to
Muhammad demonstrate that they have only a superficial understanding of the Bible.
The truth is available for anyone who is willing to examine it. Searching for
the truth requires effort, yet it can be done. As Jesus said, “You shall know
the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John
Muslims and Christians alike agree
that Christ's coming was often predicted in the Old Testament (Tawrat + Zabur +
the writings of the prophets). If God had intended to send another prophet who
would be far greater than Jesus Christ, surely we would find predictions about
him too. None are to be found. There was no need for another prophet to come
after Jesus. When Adam and Eve sinned against God, man’s relationship with God
was broken. However, because God is full of compassion and mercy, He promised
to send a Saviour (not just a prophet) to rescue the world. People try to
escape God’s judgment by relying entirely on their good works, but as we have
already seen, God’s Word says we can never please God by how good our lives are.
We are not able to make amends for our sins. We are hopeless. But God decided
to have mercy on us. He knew that there was only one way to resolve our
problem: to deal with it Himself. We did not need someone who was just a great
prophet. We needed a Saviour who came to take away our sins.
All the prophets - Noah, Abraham,
Moses, David and others - remind us of God’s promise. They prophesied and
described the Saviour who would come. Later, when the prophet John the Baptist
saw Jesus, he said that Jesus was the promised Saviour, the fulfilment of God’s
pledge to Adam and Eve. If the promised Saviour has come, why should we look
for someone else?
Jesus said, “I am the
way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6).
Notice that Jesus did not say ‘I am one way among many that will be shown to
you in the future.’ No, He said that He is the only way to paradise. Jesus was able to make this claim because He died on the cross to take
the punishment that our sins deserve. That is how our sins are dealt with. It
was not Buddha, Muhammad or any other person who died on the cross to pay for
our sins. The Holy book, the Bible, tells us that “there
is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given
among men by which we must be saved” (Acts