BIBLE
PROPHECIES ABOUT THE ADVENT OF MUHAMMAD
Abraham
is widely regarded as the Patriarch of monotheism and the common
father of the Jews, Christians and Muslims. Through His second son,
Isaac, came all Israelite prophets including such towering figures as
Jacob, Joseph, Moses, David, Solomon and Jesus. May peace and
blessings be upon them
all. The advent of these great prophets was in partial fulfillment of
God's promises to bless the nations of earth through the descendents
of Abraham (Genesis12:2-3).Such
fulfillment is wholeheartedly accepted by Muslims whose faith
considers the belief in and respect of all prophets an article of
faith.
BLESSINGS
OF ISHMAEL AND ISAAC
Was
the first born son of Abraham (Ishmael) and his descendants included
in God's covenant and promise? A few verses from the Bible may help
shed some light on this question;
1)
Genesis
12:2-3 speaks
of God's promise to Abraham and his descendants before any child was
born to him.
2)
Genesis
17:4 reiterates
God's promise after the birth of Ishmael and before the birth of
Isaac.
3)
In Genesis,
ch. 21.
Isaac is specifically blessed but Ishmael was also specifically
blessed and promised by God to become "a great nation"
especially in Genesis
21:13, 18.
4)
According to Deuteronomy
21:15-17 the
traditional rights and privileges of the first born son are not to be
affected by the social status of his mother (being a "free"
woman such as Sarah, Isaac's mother, or a "Bondwoman" such
as Hagar, Ishmael's mother). This is only consistent with the moral
and humanitarian principles of all revealed faiths.
5)
The full legitimacy of Ishmael as Abraham's son and "seed"
and the full legitimacy of his mother, Hagar, as Abraham's wife are
clearly stated in Genesis
21:13 and
16:3.
After Jesus, the last Israelite messenger and prophet, it was time
that God's promise to bless Ishmael and his descendants be fulfilled.
Less than 600years after Jesus came the last messenger of God,
Muhammad, from the progeny of Abraham through Ishmael. God's blessing
of both of the main branches of Abraham's family tree was now
fulfilled. But is there additional corroborating evidence that mthe
Bible did in fact foretell the advent of Prophet Muhammad?
MUHAMMAD:
The
Prophet Like Unto Moses
Long
time after Abraham, God's promise to send the long-awaited Messenger
was repeated this time in Moses' words.
In
Deuteronomy
18:18,
Moses spoke of the prophet to be sent by God who is:
1)
From among the Israelite's "brethren", a reference to their
Ishmaelite cousins as Ishmael was the other son of Abraham who was
explicitly promised to become a "great nation".
2)
A prophet like unto Moses. There were hardly any two prophets, who
were so much alike as Moses and Muhammad.
Both were given comprehensive law code of life, both encountered
their enemies and were victors in miraculous ways, both were accepted
as prophets/statesmen and both migrated following conspiracies to
assassinate them. Analogies between Moses and Jesus overlooks not
only the above similarities but other crucial ones as well (e.g. the
natural birth, family life and death of Moses and Muhammad
but not of
Jesus, who was regarded by His followers as the Son of God and not
exclusively a messenger of God, as Moses and Muhammad
were and
as Muslim belief Jesus was).
THE
AWAITED PROPHET WAS TO COME FROM ARABIA
Deuteronomy
33:1-2 combines
references to Moses, Jesus and Muhammad. It speaks of God (i.e. God's
revelation) coming from Sinai, rising from Seir (probably the village
of Sa'ir near Jerusalem) and shining forth from Paran.
According
to Genesis
21:21, the
wilderness of Paran was the place where Ishmael settled (i.e. Arabia,
specifically Mecca).
Indeed
the King James Version of the Bible mentions the pilgrims passing
through the valley of Ba'ca (another name of Mecca) in Psalms
84:4-6.
Isaiah
42:1-13 speaks
of the beloved of God. His elect and messenger who will bring down a
law to be awaited in the isles and who "shall not fail nor be
discouraged till he have set judgment on earth." Verse 11,
connects that awaited one with the descendants of Ke'dar. Who is
Ke'dar? According to Genesis
25:13,
Ke'dar was the second son of Ishmael, the ancestor of Prophet
Muhammad.
MUHAMMAD'S
MIGRATION FROM MECCA TO MEDINA:
PROPHECIED
IN THE BIBLE?
Habakkuk
3:3 speaks
of God (God's help) coming from Te'man (an Oasis North of Medina
according to J. Hasting's Dictionary of the Bible), and the holy one
(coming) from Paran. That holy one who under persecution migrated
from Paran (Mecca) to be received enthusiastically in Medina was none
but Prophet Muhammad.
Indeed
the incident of the migration of the prophet and his persecuted
followers is vividly described in Isaiah
21:13-17.
That section foretold as well about the battle of Badr in which the
few ill-armed faithful miraculously defeated the "mighty"
men of Ke'dar, who sought to destroy Islam and intimidate their own
folks who turned -to Islam.
THE
QUR'AN (KORAN) FORETOLD IN THE BIBLE?
For
twenty-three years, God's words (the Qur'an) were truly put into
Muhammad's
mouth. He
was not the "author" of the Qur'an. The Qur'an was dictated
to him by Angel Gabriel who asked Muhammad
to simply
repeat the words of the Qur'an as he heard them. These words were
then committed to memory and to writing by those who hear them during
Muhammad's
life time
and under his supervision.
Was
it a coincidence that the prophet "like unto Moses" from
the "brethren" of the Israelites (i.e. from the
lshmaelites) was also described as one in whose mouth God will put
his words and that he will speak in the name of God, (Deuteronomy
18:18-20).
Was it also a coincidence the "Paraclete" that Jesus
foretold to come after Him was described as one who "shall not
speak of himself, but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak
(John
16:13)
Was
it another coincidence that Isaiah ties between the messenger
connected with Ke'dar and a new song (a scripture in a new language)
to be sang unto the Lord (Isaiah
42:10-11).
More explicitly, prophesies Isaiah "For with stammering lips,
and another tongue, will he speak to this people" (Isaiah
28:11).
This latter verse correctly describes the "stammering lips"
of Prophet
Muhammad reflecting
the state of tension and concentration he went through at the time of
revelation. Another related point is that the Qur'an was revealed in
piece-meals over a span of twenty three years. It is interesting to
compare this with Isaiah
28:10 which
speaks of the same thing.
THAT
PROPHET- PARACLETE- MUHAMMAD
Up
to the time of Jesus (peace be upon him), the Israelites were still
awaiting for that prophet like unto Moses prophesied in Deuteronomy
18:18.
When John the Baptist came, they asked him if he was Christ and he
said "no". They asked him if he was Elias and he said "no".
Then, in apparent reference to Deuteronomy
18:18,
they asked him "Art thou that Prophet" and he answered,
"no". (John
1: 1 9-2 1).
In
the Gospel according to John
(Chapters 14, 15, 16) Jesus
spoke of the "Paraclete" or comforter who will come after
him, who will be sent by Father as another Paraclete, who will teach
new things which the contemporaries of Jesus could not bear. While
the Paraclete is described as the spirit of truth, (whose meaning
resemble Muhammad's
famous
title Al- Amin, the trustworthy), he is identified in one verse as
the Holy Ghost (John
14:26).
Such a designation is however inconsistent with the profile of that
Paraclete. In the words of the Dictionary
of the Bible,
(Ed. J. Mackenzie) "These items, it must be admitted do not give
an entirely coherent picture."
Indeed
history tells us that many early Christians understood the Paraclete
to be a man and not a spirit. This might explain the followings who
responded to some who claimed, without meeting the criteria
stipulated by Jesus, to be the awaited "Paraciete".
It
was Prophet
Muhammad (peace
be upon him) who was the Paraclete, Comforter, helper, admonisher
sent by God after Jesus. He testified of Jesus, taught new things
which could not be borne at Jesus' time, he spoke what he heard
(revelation), he dwells with the believers (through his well
preserved teachings). Such teachings will remain forever because he
was the last messenger of God, the
only Universal Messenger to unite the
whole of
humanity under God and on the path of PRESERVED truth.
He told of many things to come which "came to pass" in the
minutest detail meeting, the criterion given by Moses to distinguish
between the true prophet and the false prophets (Deuteronomy
18:22). He
did reprove the world of sin, of righteousness and of judgment (John
16:8-11)
WAS
THE SHIFT OF RELIGIOUS LEADERSHIP PROPHECIED?
Following
the rejection of the last Israelite prophet, Jesus, it was about time
that God's promise to make Ishmael a great nation be fulfilled
(Genesis
21:13, 18)
In
Matthew
21:19-21,
Jesus spoke of the fruitless fig tree (A Biblical symbol of prophetic
heritage) to be cleared after being given a last chance of three
years (the duration of Jesus' ministry) to give fruit. In a later
verse in the same chapter, Jesus said: "Therefore, say I unto
you, The Kingdom of God shall be taken away from you, and given to a
nation bringing forth the fruit thereof" (Matthew
21:43).
That nation of Ishmael's descendants (the rejected stone in Matthew
21:42)
which was victorious against all superpowers of its time as
prophesied by Jesus: "And whosoever shall fall on this stone
shall be broken, but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him
to powder" (Matthew
21:44).
OUT
OF CONTEXT COINCIDENCE?
Is
it possible that the numerous prophecies cited here are all
individually and combined out of context misinterpretations? Is the
opposite true, that such infrequently studied verses fit together
consistently and clearly point to the advent of the man who changed
the course of human history, Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). Is
it reasonable to conclude that all these prophecies, appearing in
different books of the Bible and spoken by various prophets at
different times were all coincidence? If this is so here is another
strange "coincidence"!
One
of the signs of the prophet to come from Paran (Mecca) is that he
will come with "ten thousands of saints" (Deuteronomy
33:2 KJV).
That was the number of faithful who accompanied Prophet
Muhammad to
Paran (Mecca) in his victorious, bloodless return to his birthplace
to destroy the remaining symbols of idolatry in the Ka'bah.
Says
God as quoted by Moses:
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. (Deuteronomy
18:19)
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