WHO WAS THAT PROPHET?

WHO WAS THAT PROPHET?

 

In the Bible (John 1:19-21) John the Baptist, when questioned by the Pharisees, denied that he was (1) the Messiah, (2) Elijah and (3) the Prophet.

 John 1:19-21 (NIV):

19 Now this was John’s testimony when the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to ask him who he was. 

20 He did not fail to confess, but confessed freely, “I am not the Messiah.”

21 They asked him, “Then who are you? Are you Elijah?”

He said, “I am not.”

“Are you the Prophet?”

He answered, “No.”

 The followers of Jesus (the early Christians although at that time Christianity was not yet a separate religion from Judaism) believed that he (Jesus) was the Messiah. These followers were Jews, although the majority of the Jews at that time didn’t believe in him. So John the Baptist was not the Messiah.

 John the Baptist denied being Elijah because he was not the literal, reincarnated person of Elijah, even though he fulfilled Elijah’s spiritual role (Jesus said that John the Baptist was Elijah in Matthew 11:13-14).

 So who was “the Prophet” who was distinct from the Messiah and Elijah? If that expected Prophet was also the expected Messiah, then the Pharisees would not have asked a redundant question. If he (John the Baptist) was not the Messiah, then he was also not the Prophet. No need to ask the third question.

 From this episode we know that the Jews were expecting 3 distinct personalities – the Messiah, Elijah (his second coming as predicted in Malachi 4:5-6) and “the Prophet”.

 The Jews were expecting a Prophet “like Moses” as prophesized in Deuteronomy 18:15 & 18. The Christians believe that Jesus the Messiah was that Prophet. Which means the Messiah and that Prophet was the same person. But the Jews were expecting a Prophet who was not also the Messiah.

 

 MOSES, JESUS & MUHAMMAD (PEACE BE UPON THEM)

 In Deuteronomy 18:15 Moses said: “The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers (some translations use “your fellow Israelites” but the original Hebrew says “your brothers”) – it is to him you shall listen.”

 In Deut 18:18 God says “I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command.”

 In Deut 18:19 Moses warned that anyone who refuses to listen to the words that this prophet speaks in God’s name will be held accountable by God Himself.

 The Christians believe that this Prophet was Jesus, as affirmed in Acts 3:22-23 by the Apostle Peter and in Acts 7:37 by Stephens (the first follower of Jesus to be martyred).

 Many comparisons are made to show that the life and mission of Jesus were like those of Moses, and that those verses apply to Jesus.

 However, the Muslims also claim that the expected Prophet was Muhammad.  Comparisons of the lives and missions of Muhammad and Moses also show many similarities, and that those verses also apply to Muhammad.

 Both of them spoke what God commanded. Jesus spoke what was commanded by God (the Father) and so did Muhammad (by God/Allah). Both were prophets.

 But only Muhammad was known to have regurgitated thousands of sentences of God’s words (God said “I will put my words in his mouth” – see above). Jesus (and other prophets) repeated much less of God’s words. Muhammad recited (verbatim) the entire Qur’an which he claimed is wholly God’s Word relayed via Archangel Gabriel.

 Both spoke in God’s name, but Muhammad (and his followers – the Muslims) was known for beginning every speech (and every action) with the Basmallah (Bismillah arRahman arRaheem/In the name of God the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful). Good Muslims recite this at least 100 times a day. Every day.

 In general, which claim “wins” tend to be decided by the bias of the person making the choice, as both Jesus and Muhammad had many similarities to Moses.

My short response is – although Jesus indeed was a prophet, Christians believe that he was also God (as the Son of God, the second Person of the Trinity). Moses was not God. That alone disqualifies Jesus because there is a vast difference between God and His creation! Both Moses and Muhammad were mortal prophets.

What if Jesus was not God, as the Muslims believe? Does that then restore the claim that he was the expected Prophet?

No. This episode involving John the Baptist clearly indicates that the expected Prophet and the Messiah were two different persons. Therefore if Jesus was the Messiah, then he was not that Prophet. Muslims also believe that Jesus was the Messiah but not that Prophet.

If that Prophet was also to be the Messiah, then Moses would have said so.

 

 

THE LAST PROPHET WOULD BE AN ISHMAELITE?

Some Muslims believe that in Deuteronomy 33 Moses prophesied that the last prophet will be from the Ishmaelites:

Deut 33:2 The LORD came from Sinai and dawned over them from Seir; he shone forth from Mount Paran.

According to them, Sinai refers to Moses who received the Torah on Mount Sinai while Seir refers to Jesus as Mount Seir is in ancient Edom in the southern part of the Jewish “Promised Land”.

Paran was where the Ishmaelites first settled before they migrated southwards to Arabia. Prophet Muhammad was a descendant of the Ishmaelites.

In my opinion this claim by the Muslims is not strong. But they could be right if we examine Isaiah 42 (see below).

 

 IS MUHAMMAD MENTIONED BY NAME IN THE BIBLE?

Song of Solomon 5:16 contains the Hebrew expression: מַחֲמַדִּים — machmadim, which is translated to “altogether lovely”.

Some Muslims claim this is a direct reference by name to Muhammad (Muhammadim).

However, reading the passage contextually, I do not agree that it refers to Prophet Muhammad. 

Muslims may be guilty of seeing too much of Muhammad in the Bible just as we accuse the Christians of seeing so many things in the Old Testament as referring to the Trinity God, Jesus and the “pre-incarnate Jesus” when the Jews themselves never interpreted or understood their Tanakh in those terms.

 

 

HE WILL ESTABLISH JUSTICE ON EARTH

The debate continues in Isaiah 42:1-4

Isaiah 42:1 “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.

Isaiah 42:2 He will not shout or cry out, or raise his voice in the streets.

Isaiah 42:3 A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out. In faithfulness he will bring forth justice;

Isaiah 42:4 He will not falter or be discouraged till he establishes justice on earth. In his teaching the islands will put their hope.”

Again, the Christians say these descriptions refer to Jesus while the Muslims say these refer to Muhammad.

My short answer – To the Christians, Jesus is famously known as the Son of God, co-equal in power and glory to God the Father, and not famous as His servant (although he is called servant of God several times in the NT). How can a servant be equal in power and glory with God? That itself is contradictory. Muhammad is famously known as the Messenger and servant of God with absolutely no claim to the power and glory of God.

Both were chosen by God for their missions - Jesus according to the Bible and Qur’an, and Muhammad by the Qur’an. One of Prophet Muhammad’s titles was Al-Mustafa (The Chosen One).

According to the Bible NT, the Holy Spirit (one of the three “Persons” of the Trinity God according to Christian belief) enabled the virgin Mary to conceive Jesus miraculously.

According to the Qur’an the Holy Spirit is Archangel Gabriel (Jibril/Jibrail) who, by God’s command, enabled the virgin Mary to conceive miraculously. He also enabled Jesus to perform miracles. He was also entrusted to reveal the Qur’an to Muhammad and often assisted Muhammad throughout his mission.

So both can be said to be servants of God, chosen by God and empowered by the Holy Spirit (though with different understandings).

Both were kind and gentle, with impeccable characters.

But when it comes to establishing justice, the similarity ends. Christians believe that Jesus came to establish a spiritual Kingdom of God and did not set out to establish justice to the nations. That would be his mission only in his Second Coming.

So Jesus never got to establish justice on earth before his ascension. According to Christian belief he was instead a victim of injustice, was crucified and died on the cross after crying out “God, God why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46 and Mark 15:34).

Prophet Muhammad did establish justice to the nations before his death. The Sharia Law that he brought impressed many legal experts, including the founder of the Harvard International Law Society (the late Robert Dickson Crane who became Faruq Abd al-Haqq after his conversion to Islam) and even the Harvard Law School itself:

In 2012, verse 4:135 of the Qur’an was selected by the Harvard faculty and students as one of the most powerful historical expressions of justice. It remains the most prominent religious scripture permanently engraved on the walls of Harvard Law School:

“O ye who believe! Stand out firmly for justice, as witnesses to Allah, even as against yourselves, or your parents, or your kin, and whether it be (against) rich or poor: for Allah can best protect both.” (Q.4:135)

 

HE WILL ARISE AMONG THE KEDARITES

That the expected Prophet was Muhammad cannot be denied if we understand Isaiah 42:11, just 7 verses below the last Bible verse quoted above (about justice). The description of this chosen servant of God described in Isaiah 42:1-4 is then linked to where he will appear:

Isaiah 42:11 Let the wilderness and its towns raise their voices; let the settlements where Kedar lives rejoice. Let the people of Sela sing for joy; let them shout from the mountaintops.

Kedar was the second son of Ishmael (Ismail in Arabic), and his descendants (Kedarites) were the ancestors of the Arabs. Prophet Muhammad was a descendant of Kedar (Qidar in Arabic).

Sela is an area in modern Madinah. In fact you can search for “Sela” on Google Map right now and see for yourself. When you search, two places will appear – one in Jordan and the other in Madinah Saudi Arabia.

Bible scholars who do not know or ignore this (that the Kedarites lived where Mount Sela of Madinah is) traditionally say Sela is the mountainous area on the Edomite Plateau in Jordan. That area is “as-Sala’ ” or “es-Sela”. As the name of the plateau implies, it was where the Edomites, not the Kedarites, used to inhabit. The Edomites were descendants of Esau, brother of Jacob.

Sela of Madinah, a mountainous land of the Kedarites, fits the Bible description perfectly. It is still called Sela. The description says “Mountain peak”. Mountain tops vs mountain peak, how precise is the description in Isaiah 42:11!

If you knew how the Madinans rejoiced, shouted and sang upon the arrival of Prophet Muhammad during the Hijrah, you will appreciate this prophecy even more. Yes, they did go up the mountain tops because they wanted to see the Prophet arriving from afar.  And they shouted at the top of their voices once they saw him and his companion Abu Bakr in the distance.  

 

  CONCLUSION – THAT PROPHET WAS MUHAMMAD (PBUH)

The Prophet “like Moses” who was not the Messiah could only be Muhammad.

Both had normal human parents, were conceived and born normally, were married and had children, became prophets, had huge numbers of followers before their deaths, led their people on migrations (Exodus & Hijra) to flee persecution, brought new revelations (Torah & Qur’an) and new comprehensive laws from God (Judaic Law & Sharia), served as political and military rulers of their people, accomplished their missions and were triumphant in the end. Both had natural deaths.

Muhammad was a descendant of Ishmael, the brother of Isaac. Hence Arabs and Israelites are brothers/brethren. The counter-argument is that they are cousins, not brothers.

According to Muhammad, the entire Qur’an he recited is God’s Word and not his. He and his followers (to this day) began their speeches and deeds by reciting the Basmallah (“In the Name of Allah the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful”).

Of course the Christians have made comparisons of Jesus and Moses that show many similarities between them. But these did not include the descriptions that I highlighted in bold in the above comparison between Moses and Muhammad. The greatest difference is that Moses was a mortal man while Jesus is God according to Christians.

Since Christians believe that Jesus’ mission was to die on the cross to save humanity, and they believe it happened, thus according to them he accomplished his mission, although his last cry “God, God why have you forsaken me?” certainly was not by someone who was triumphant.

Christians highlight that Jesus was repeating the cry by David when he felt that God had abandoned him (Psalm 22:1). The difference is – David was not God, so his feeling of hopelessness was justified even though he was a prophet. Christians say Jesus was God/Son of God who knew he had to die on the cross. If so surely he should know that God (the Father) would certainly not abandon him.

The Qur’an says Jesus was not crucified but it was made to seem so. Hence it was that substituted person who made that cry. Jesus who was a prophet (and God according to the Christians) would certainly not complain like that if he knew that being crucified was part of his mission.

The crucifixion, death and resurrection of Jesus continue to be hot topics of debates between Christians and Muslims since the Christian Son of God is claimed by the Muslims to be one of their major prophets and messengers of God, but not the Son of God or a God.

But today we just address the question – Who was that Prophet asked about in John 1:21?

While who the prophet “like Moses” was can be challenged, nobody else can claim to be the chosen servant who recited God’s Word verbatim, appeared in Madinah and established justice on earth.

Of course, as stated, as a Muslim I may be biased (as much as I try to be objective). I have given the evidence. It is up to the readers to accept or not, or to challenge its veracity.

 

POST-SCRIPT.

DID JESUS ALSO PREDICT THAT MUHAMMAD WOULD SUCCEED HIM?

 Jesus said in John 14:16:

“I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter…”

 And in John 16:7 he said:

“If I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you…”

 Christians say the Comforter is the Holy Spirit who could only come after Jesus ascended.

 If that is so, then how come the Holy Spirit (including “The Spirit of God”, “The Spirit of the LORD” and “My Spirit”) had descended many times before Jesus, as told in the Old Testament? Among those visited by the Holy Spirit were Bezalel (Exodus 31:3), Samson (Judges 14:6), the Elders of Moses (Numbers 11:25), Saul and David (1 Samuel 16:13-14). Obviously the Holy Spirit was already busy interacting with humans long before Jesus came and left.

Muslim scholars have argued that this refers to a Messenger (Muhammad) who would come after Jesus. They claim that the correct identity of this “Comforter” got lost in copying and translation:

 The Gospels were written in Greek, and here the word parakletos is translated as Comforter, Advocate or Counselor. The Muslims contend that the Greek word was probably periklutos, which means “Praised One”.

 This is because the Qur’an 61:6 says:

And (remember) when Jesus, son of Mary, said, “O children of Israel! I am truly Allah’s messenger to you, confirming the Torah which came before me, and giving good news of a messenger after me whose name will be Aḥmad.” Yet when the Prophet came to them with clear proofs, they said, “This is pure magic.”

This verse, if translated to Greek, would mention periklutos. Thus the Qur’an claims that Jesus had proclaimed that the Messenger named Ahmad will succeed him.

Ahmad means "praised one/praiseworthy". Muhammad means “the praised one”.

 Actually, both parakletos and periklutos can refer to Muhammad. Among Muhammad’s many titles include Al-Mushaffa’, which means The Intercessor or The Advocate. He will advocate for humanity before God on the Day of Judgement.

His other titles include Rasul al-Rahah (The Messenger of Comfort) and Rahmatan lil-‘Alameen (Mercy to the Worlds) 

My view – after reading the descriptions of the Comforter (John 14:16-17) it is clear that it does not refer to a man. So it cannot refer to Muhammad. The verses regarding Ahmad in the Gospel that the Qur’an alludes to must be missing or changed since Muslims believe that the Qur’an is the Criterion of what was originally revealed to Jesus, and therefore he must have said those words.

We must take note that there are dozens of non-canonical gospels, with many surviving only as fragments. However, the one gospel (the Gospel of Barnabas) that mentions Muhammad by name many times is generally regarded as a 16^th century forgery.

 

WERE THE JEWS IN MADINAH EXPECTING A PROPHET TO APPEAR THERE (IN SELA)?

According to the Muslim narrative, at the time of Prophet Muhammad there were Jews living in Madinah (or Yathrib as it was called until Prophet Muhammad changed its name) and they were indeed expecting the appearance of that prophet there. But when the Prophet that appeared was an Arab who brought a new religion, they rejected him just as when they were expecting their Messiah, but when Jesus appeared, they rejected him. However, this narrative is not confirmed by non-Muslim sources.

 

WHY ARE MUSLIMS SO CONCERNED ABOUT THE PREDICTIONS ABOUT PROPHET MUHAMMAD IN THE BIBLE?

The Qur’an 7:157 says:

“Those who follow the Messenger, the unlettered Prophet, whom they find written in what they have of the Torah and the Gospel…”

Therefore Muslims need to look for these passages to prove to our Jewish and Christian brothers that Muhammad was indeed a Prophet and Messenger of God (since he was prophesied in their Scriptures); to inform them that indeed we worship the same One God who sent all the prophets and messengers; and that Muhammad came to re-establish the absolute Oneness of God that was believed and taught by all the prophets (including Jesus) until the Christian theologians changed One Unity God to become a Trinity God.

If they accept that their Bible foretold the coming of the last prophet in Madinah, then surely they would be open to reading the Qur’an and studying its teachings. If they deny this evidence, it is their choice.

May GOD guide us all to the Truth!

 

THE “MUSLIM DILEMMA”

Christians often cite the “Muslim Dilemma” whereby the Qur’an confirms the revelation of the previous Scriptures (like the Torah, Psalms, Gospel); it also says these Scriptures have been corrupted; yet it says no one can change God’s words; and it asks Muslims to invite the Jews and Christians to refer to these Scriptures for confirmation of what is written in the Qur’an.

My answers:

1. The Qur’an confirms that there were previous revelations given to the selected Prophets/Messengers of God.

2. Not all these revelations were written down by these Prophets (or their scribes). If they did, most were lost. Most of the Bible books were written much later than the events described, by anonymous writers and then ascribed to the Prophets. For example, Deuteronomy is ascribed to Moses as the author, yet it describes his death and burial!

3. Corruptions to these Scriptures occurred over time. The surviving corrupted versions are what the Qur’an refers to as (for example) “what they have of the Torah and Gospel”. This can be read as “what is left of the Torah and Gospel”.

4. Indeed the words of God cannot be changed. If the claimed Scripture is not actually God’s Word (only falsely claimed to be so) then if it is corrupted, it is not God’s words that are changed! Most of the authors of the books of the Bible, including the Old Testament, are anonymous according to the majority of scholars. To overcome this setback, apologists say the authors (the anonymous ones and the known writers who were not prophets) were “inspired by God”. That is just their claim. And when errors and contradictions were found, they say these were because of human error although the source is divine.

5. The words of God cannot be changed without being discovered sooner or later. Anyone can change God’s words but once the corruption is discovered we will know that it is not the original divine words (even if the original is not extant).

6. God in His Wisdom preserved enough of the revelations such that some accurate records of important facts or events can still be found in them and are consistent with the Qur’an’s rendition. Where there are discrepancies between the Bible and the Qur’an, the latter serves as the benchmark (the Criterion). Unlike the previous Scriptures, God has guaranteed that the Qur’an is protected from corruption (Q.15:9)