Did Isa Foretell the Coming of Mohammed

Many times, as I have had conversations with Muslims, they have confidently told me that the Bible foretells the coming of Hazrat Mohammed.  With all due respect, I had to say to them: “I am very familiar with the Tawrat, Zaboor and Injiil and I can say with certainty that this is simply not true.”

 On one occasion I met with a Muslim scholar who had written a booklet on this subject.  He claimed that there were 33 clear references to Mohammed in the Bible.  I asked him to show me just one reference that clearly mentioned Hazrat Mohammed or could with certainty be shown to refer to him.  He mentioned the references in the Injiil, from the Gospel account written by John the disciple of Isa, that supposedly referred to Hazrat Mohammed.  (We will look at this reference later.)  I showed him from the text of John that this could not possibly refer to Hazrat Mohammed.   After that, he refused to discuss any further references with me. 

 Muslim scholars make the false claim that many passages in the Bible refer to Hazrat Mohammed.  It would take much too long to try to discuss each passage.  We will simply look at the three that are the most common and, according to the scholars, the clearest references to Hazrat Mohammed in the Bible.

 Reference 1: Deuteronomy 18:15-17

 The first reference is in a passage spoken by Musa to the People of Israel.   In this part of the Tawrat, Musa is near his time of death, so he is reviewing Allah’s great works and His Law for the people of Israel.  In the days of Musa, the people of Israel were slaves in Egypt.   The Pharon (the Pharaoh or king) of Egypt made Israel work very hard and under harsh conditions on his building projects.  Allah sent Musa to set the people free.   Pharon was hard-hearted toward Allah and His people.   So, Allah sent 10 great plaques (disasters) upon Egypt and, finally, Pharon set Israel free.  After the people of Israel left, Pharon’s heart grew hard and he sent his mighty army out to bring Israel back.  When Pharon’s army caught up with Musa and Israel they were at the coast of the Red Sea.  Pharon thought that he had Israel trapped with no way of escape.  But that night Allah parted the Red Sea and sent a wind to dry out the path between the divided waters of the sea.  Israel walked through on dry ground.  Then Pharon sent his army into the parted waters of the sea.  When the last Israelite had come out on the other side, Allah brought the waters of the sea crashing back and drowned the armies of Pharan.  The people of Israel became a free people!

 Then Allah told Musa to take Israel into the wilderness to Mount Sinai.  There, Allah gave Musa His Commandments to give to the people of Israel.  Allah talked directly to Musa.  Musa could not see Allah because, as the Before Scriptures tell us, that no one can see Allah and live.  But, Musa could hear the voice of Allah. 

 Before he died, Allah told Musa to tell the people this:

 The LORD your Allah will raise up for you a Prophet like me, from your midst, from your brethren.  Him you shall hear.  The Lord said to me (Musa), “I will raise up for them a Prophet from among your brethren and will put My words in His mouth and He shall speak to them all that I command Him.

Muslim teachers claim that this refers to Mohammed.  However, there are three clear reasons why this cannot refer to Hazrat Mohammed. 

First Reason:  This Prophet was to come from the brethren of Musa and Israel.  Earlier in this same message to Israel in this same part of the Tawrat, Musa instructed Israel about their future kings.  He commanded Israel that only one ‘”from among your brethren (brothers) you shall set up as king over you.”  It was very clear what Musa meant.  The King of Israel was to be an Israelite – from one of the twelve tribes of Israel.  The first King of Israel was from the tribe of Benjamin.  The second King was Dawood from the tribe of Judah.  Allah loved Dawood and promised him that only his descendants would be the proper kings of the people of Allah (and that one day one of his descendants would establish a kingdom that would never end).  From that time on, the proper King was supposed to come only from the tribe of Judah.   Israel would have never chosen or accepted a King who was not an Israelite – ‘one from among their brethren’.  One from ‘among their brethren’ clearly meant an Israelite.  Therefore it could not refer to Hazrat Mohammed, for He is clearly not from the line of Israel.

Second Reason:  This Prophet was to be like Musa.  What did that mean?  The Tawrat tells us very plainly what that meant.

Since then (the death of Musa) no prophet has risen in Israel like Musa, whom the LORD knew face to face, who did all those miraculous signs and wonders the LORD sent him to do in Egypt.  For no one has ever shown the mighty power or shown the awesome deeds that Musa did in the sight of all Israel.

So the Tawrat explains exactly what Musa meant when he said a Prophet like me.  First, it meant that Musa spoke directly to Allah.  So this Prophet who was to come would speak directly to Allah.  Later in this same part of the Tawrat, it says Allah told Musa, “I will put My words in His mouth and He shall speak to them all I command Him.”  Muslim teachers themselves tell us that Allah did not speak directly to Mohammed.  They say that Allah sent Jabreel with the message.  No one claims that Hazrat Mohammed spoke directly to Allah.  But, listen to what Isa told us:

The words that I speak, I speak not Myself but the Father in Me, He does the work.

All the things that I have heard from the Father, I have made known to you.

Isa spoke directly to Allah like Musa did.  The Qur’an even says this also:

 Surah Al Imran (3) 48  And Allah will teach him the Book and Wisdom, the Tawrat and the Injiil.

The Tawrat also tells us there is a second way that this coming Prophet would be like Musa.  This Prophet was to do great miracles.  No prophet to Allah’s people ever did greater miracles than Isa!

Sura Al Imran (Sura 3) 49  I heal those born blind, and the lepers, and I raise the dead to life, by Allah’s will.  Surely therein is a sign for you if you did believe.

These are just a few of the miracles that Isa did.  Many more of them are recorded for us in the Injiil.  One time Isa miraculously fed 5000 men, plus the women and children, with five loaves of bread and two small fish.  This miracle is mentioned in Sura Al Ma’idah (Sura 5) 112-115.  Isa had fed the people miraculously.  He had given them bread from heaven just as Musa had given the people bread from heaven in the wilderness.  The Injiil tells us:

Then those men, when they saw the sign that Jesus did, said, “This is truly the Prophet who is to come into the world.”

They understood that the Prophet that Musa had foretold would do great miracles, like Musa did.  But, Hazrat Mohammed did not do great miracles.  Those who did not believe Hazrat Mohammed brought this up to him:

The unbelievers say, “Why is not a sign sent down to him (Hazrat Mohammed) from his Lord?

Say to them, “Surely the Lord leaves (allows) to stray away whom He will.  Yet they do reject Him ….. (even ) If there were a Qur’an with which mountains were moved or the earth cloven asunder (split apart), or the dead were made to speak.”

Hazrat Mohammed said that unbelievers would not believe, even if great signs were given to them and this is true.  But it still does not change the truth that the Prophet that Musa spoke of would do great signs before the People of Israel.  The Qur’an does not clearly tell of Hazrat Mohammed doing a single miracle.  And af course Hazrat Mohammed did not do miracles ‘before Israel’ because he went to the Arabs, not to Isreal.

But someone may say, doesn’t the Qur’an say that Hazrat Mohammed divided the moon into two parts?  Listen to what the Qur’an says:

Sura Al Qamar (Sura 54) 1-2  The hour of judgment is near and the moon is cleft asunder (split apart).  But if they see a sign they turn away and “This is but passing magic.”

 
These ayyat do refer to the dividing of the moon, but it is quite unclear if this has anything to do with Hazrat Mohammed.  The hour of Judgment is at the last day, so it is likely that this is a reference to what will happen then.  Maulana Abdul Majid Darybadi, in a note in his translation of the Qur’an, says that this could be translated ‘shall be rent in sunder’- “The past tense has been used here as is so often in the Qur’an, for the future.” 

 In the Hadith we see this reference to the splitting of the moon:

 Narrated by Anas bin Malik:  The people of Mecca asked Allah’s Apostle to show them a miracle.  So he showed them the moon split in two halves between which they saw the Hira mountain.  5:132-33; 58.35.208

This may have simply been a case where the Hira mountain came between the Meccans and the full moon so that the line of the mountain divided their view of the moon into two parts.

But even if this were a miracle that Hazrat Mohammed himself performed, it would still be the only sign or miracle that the Qur’an tells us that Hazrat Mohammed performed.  In contrast Musa did many miracles before Israel and he said that the coming Prophet would do many mircles as well.  However, Isa fits the description of the Prophet very clearly because He did many powerful miracles.   These signs are recorded for us in the Injiil.

So Hazrat Mohammed could not be the Prophet that Musa described because he does not fit the description, that the Tawrat gives us, of the coming Prophet.

Third Reason:  The Injiil tells us that this Prophet that Musa spoke of was indeed Isa Masih.  In the Injiil, the disciple of Isa named Peter said:

Repent (turn) therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing shall come to you from the presence of the Lord, and that He may send Jesus Christ (Isa Masih to you, into your heart) who was preached to you before. For Musa truly said to the fathers, “The LORD your Allah will raise up for you a Prophet like me from among 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 his people.

Peter and the other disciples made it clear that the Prophet Musa foretold was indeed Isa.

Reference 2: Isaiah 40:2-3

 Isaiah (Eshiya) the great prophet of Allah said:

 Comfort, yes comfort My people, says your Allah, speak comfort to her and cry out to Jerusalem.  The voice of one crying in the wilderness.  Prepare the way of the LORD.  Make straight in the desert a highway for our Allah.

Some say that this is a clear reference to Hazrat Mohammed.  Who else could it be?  He is  the prophet of the desert they claim, so this must be a reference to Mohammed.

There is a great problem with this argument.  The Injiil tells us very plainly who this message from Eshiya refers to.  It is Yahya!  In the days of Yahya and Isa, the people were eagerly looking for the Masih (Messiah – the promised Coming One: for further explanation see segment 3 ‘The Great Mystery of the Ages’ and the article  ‘A Certain Sign of Allah’s Word’). 

Now the people were in expectation and all reasoned in their hearts about Yahya, whether he was the Masih or not. 

Then the Jews sent priests from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you? 

He confessed, “I am not the Masih (Christ, Messiah)”

“Are you the Prophet?” 

He answered. “No.”

Then they said to him, “Who are you that we may give an answer to those who sent us, what do you say about yourself?”

He said, “I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness; make straight the way of the LORD.”

This cannot refer to Hazrat Mohammed because it referred to Yahya who came to prepare the way for the Masih Isa.

Reference 3:  John 14:16

This is the most common passage that Muslim teachers claim to be reference or foretelling of the coming of Hazrat Mohammed.  Isa is speaking the night before He was crucified.  He was speaking to His disciples, teaching them and preparing them for the time ahead when He would not be physically with them.   He was explaining to them that He was about to die, be raised to life again and go back to Allah.  Isa said to them:

I will pray (ask) the Father and He will give you another Helper.

The Muslim teachers say that this is what the Qur’an is referring to, in Sura Al Saff.  There, we are told, Isa mentions a messenger to come after Him.

Sura Al Saff (Sura 61) 3  And remember Isa the son of Maryam said, “O children of Israel!  I am the Messenger of Allah to you, confirming the Law (Tawrat) before

Me and giving glad tidings of a Messenger to come after Me, whose name shall be Ahmad.

 The Injiil was written in Greek and the Greek word that is translated as ‘Helper” is the word ‘paracletos’.   It literally means ‘one who is called alongside’.   It was used to mean an advocate or lawyer.  It meant someone who became your helper, comforter or advocate, or someone who interceded or spoke for you.

 Muslim scholars tell us that this word ‘paracletos’ has been changed.  Abdullah Yusuf Ali is one of the most famous known Muslim scholars.  Here is what he said in his commentary about Sura Al Saff ayya 3:

Ahmad’ or ‘Muhammad’: (meaning) the Praised One is almost a translation of the Greek word ‘Periclutos’.  In the present Gospel of John, 14:16, 15:26 and 16:7, ‘Comforter’ (or ‘Helper’) in the English version is for the Greek word ‘Paracletos’ which means ‘Advocate’, ‘one called to help another’, ‘a kind friend’ rather than a comforter.  Our doctors contend that Paracletos’ os is a corrupt reading for ‘Periclutos’  and that in the original saying of Jesus there was a prophecy of our Holy Prophet Ahmad by name.  Even if we read, Paraclete, it would apply to the Holy Prophet, who is a ‘mercy for all creatures’ (Sura 21:107)

 
So, we need to consider this theory that Isa was prophesying (foretelling) the coming of Hazrat Mohammed in this passage.  Is there any evidence that Isa was speaking about Hazrat Mohammed?  Again, we will see that there are some major problems with this theory.

 First Problem: The context makes it very clear that Isa was not speaking about Hazrat Mohammed.  Listen to what Isa said to His disciples:

 John 14:15-18  (Isa is speaking) “If you love Me, keep My commandments (see Al Imran, Sura 3:55).  And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper (‘Paracletos’), that He may abide (remain) with you forever, even 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.  I will not leave you as orphans (alone), I will come to you. 

 John 16:7-11 And now I go away to Him who has sent Me …. And sorrow has filled your hearts.  Nevertheless, I tell you the truth, it is better for you that I go away, for if I do not go away the Helper will not come.  And when He has come, He will convict (convince, make known) the world of sin, judgment and righteousness.  Of sin because they do not believe in Me; of righteousness because I go to My Father; of judgment because the prince of this world (Shaytan) is judged.

I still have many more things to say to you, but cannot fully understand them now. When the Spirit of Truth (the Helper) has come, He will guide you into all Truth.  He will glorify Me, for He will take what is mine and declare it unto you.  All things that the Father has are mine, therefore I said He will take of mine and declare it unto you.

 
So what did Isa tell us about this Helper that would come after Him?  Could Hazrat Mohammed have fulfilled any of the qualities of this Helper?
 

• The Helper would remain with them forever.  Certainly Hazrat Mohammed could not do this.  He has died and you can go to his grave near Mecca today.
• The Helper is the Spirit of Truth that the world could not see.  This Helper was not a person with a body; He is Spirit.  Notice that though the disciples of Isa could know Him, they could not see him either.  Certainly Hazrat Mohammed was visible.  He was not a spirit; he was a flesh and blood visible person.
• The Helper was with them and would be in them.  Isa was Ruhallah – the Spirit of Allah.  So as long as Isa was there bodily, the Spirit of Allah was with them.  Isa was soon to go back to Allah.  Then the Spirit would freely work in the minds and hearts of the Followers of Isa – He would be in them.  Certainly Hazrat Mohammed was not with the Disciples of Isa and He could not have been in them.  All of those Disciples that Isa was speaking to that night died over 500 years before Hazrat Mohammed was born.  Notice that Isa said “I will come to you.” 
• The Helper would convict the world of sin, judgment and righteousness.  The word ‘convict’ means to convince someone or make someone aware of his sin so that person can turn away from his sin and turn to Allah.  Only Allah can do this.  Again and again, the Qur’an makes it clear that only Allah can turn a person from sin and unbelief to righteousness and faith.  Hazrat Mohammed certainly spoke of sin, judgment and righteousness, but he would never have claimed to be able to convince people of their sin and unbelief.
• The Helper would glorify Isa and teach the Disciples of Isa all of the Truth about Allah’s plan of salvation in Isa.  The Disciples of Isa had not yet understood Allah’s plan of salvation through Isa.  He appeared to His Disciples many times over a forty day period.  After He was raised from the dead, they began to understand.  Then He ascended back to the Father in Heaven.  His Disciples watched as He was taken up before their eyes.  Before He left, Isa told the Disciples “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you shall be witnesses of me to the ends of the earth.”  As the Disciples told the Good News of Isa, the very Spirit of Allah was giving the Disciples power and boldness and was glorifying Isa in the minds and hearts of those who heard.  The Spirit of Allah was giving the Disciples clear understanding of what Isa taught.   Many people all over the world heard and believed in Isa Masih.  The Holy Spirit of Allah was also guiding the writing down of the Injiil so that it would be perfect and without change or error.  Of course this could not refer to Hazrat Mohammed because he was not there.  It would be over 500 years before he was born.

 The Helper that Isa spoke of could not possibly be Hazrat Mohammed.  Isa makes it very clear that the Helper He is speaking of is the Holy Spirit of Allah.  This is not Jabreel (Gabriel).  Jabreel is only an angel.  This is the very Spirit of Allah.   The Spirit of Allah is the very presence of Allah Himself.   By His Spirit, He works in this world and in our lives.  This is why Isa said, “He is with you (in Isa Ruhallah) and will be in you (working in you).   Isa is not speaking of Hazrat Mohammed, or any man.  Isa is talking about the Spirit of Allah.

 Second Reason:  There is no evidence anywhere that the words of Isa have been corrupted or changed.  There are over 5000 hand written manuscripts (copies made before the printing press) of the Injiil.  Many of these are from the time before the birth of Hazrat Mohammed.  So we have many copies of the Injiil both before and after the time of Hazrat Mohammed.  There is not any evidence that Isa ever said ‘Periclutos’ instead of ‘Paracletos’.  These words may sound similar, but they are two very different words with very different meanings. 

 There were thousands of copies of the Injiil all over the world by the time of Mohammed.  If some Christian had wanted to hide a prophecy about Mohammed by changing the Injiil, he would have had to travel all over the world, find all the copies of the Injiil, and change them.  Then he would have to find a way to keep those who had those true copies of the Injiil from telling anyone that he had changed it, by either paying them off or killing them.  And even then, surely one copy would have been missed.  There would have been a copy somewhere that had the true and accurate reading of ‘Periclutos’.  (Can you see how ridiculous this idea that the Bible has been changed really is?)  But there is not such a copy because no one ever changed it.   Isa said ‘Paracletos’, He meant ‘Paracletos’ and He was referring to the Holy Spirit of Allah and not a man.

 Third Reason:  According to what the Muslim scholars tell us, Ahmad and Periclutos do not even mean the same thing!  They tell us that ‘Ahmed means ‘highly praised’.  However, they quickly say that this implies ‘one who highly praises Allah’.  This of course makes perfect sense.  Surely Hazrat Mohammed, who so abhorred anyone being raised to the level of Allah or anyone taking His praise, would have rejected the idea of being ‘worthy of praise’ himself.  Yet the word Periclutos means one who receives praise and attention.  It means literally ‘to hear about’.  A Periclutos is someone who receives praise, not someone who gives praise. 

 So what is the meaning of Sura Al Saff (61) 3.  This ayya is not as clear as some Muslim teachers would lead us to believe.  It is not even clear that this passage is speaking of Hazrat Mohammed.  Please recognize that there are two different names being mentioned here – Mohammed and Ahmad.  I realize the Muslim teachers say that Ahmad is just another name for Mohammed.  However, this is like saying that the word ‘ball’ is just the same as the word ‘football’.  If I say there is a ballgame being played does it mean the same as saying there is a football game being played?  It could mean the same, but it is by no means certain.   The prophet of Islam has always been called Mohammed, not Ahmad.  This is what he is called in the Qur’an itself.  He is called Mohammed in Sura Mohammed (Sura 47) ayya 2. 

 So, who was the One coming after Isa?  We saw that Isa said in the Injiil that the One coming after him was the Holy Spirit of Allah.   And the Holy Spirit is certainly the ‘One worthy of praise’.   So, it is possible that Hazrat Mohammed is just retelling the Story from the Injiil.  After he was crucified and was raised from the dead, Isa was taken up to Allah.  Then the Holy Spirit of Allah came into the world to help the Disciples of Isa tell the Good News (Injiil) to the whole world.  Before He was taken up to Allah’s presence, Isa told His followers:

 You will receive power after the Holy Spirit has come upon you and shall be witnesses of me …. unto the ends of the earth.

Whatever Hazrat Mohammed was saying, it is very clear that the Tawrat, Zaboor and Injiil did not foretell the coming of a messenger named Mohammed.