Bible About Muhammad Essay, Research Paper
"Say: ‘Do you see whether this message be from Allah (God Almighty), and
yet you reject it, and a witness from among the Children of Israel bore witness
of one like him.’ " (the Holy Quran 46:10) Mr. Chairman, Ladies and
Gentlemen, The subject of this evening’s talk – "What the Bible says about
Muhammad" will no doubt come as a surprise to many of you because the
speaker is a Muslim. How does it come about that a Muslim happens to be
expounding prophecies from the Jewish and Christian Scriptures? As a young man,
about 30 years ago, I attended a series of religious lectures by a Christian
theologian, a certain Rev. Hiten, at the "Theater Royal", Durban in
South Africa. Pope or Kissinger?: This Reverend gentleman was expounding
Biblical prophecies. He went on to prove that the Christian Bible foretold the
rise of Soviet Russia, and the Last Days. At one stage he went to the extent of
proving that his Holy Book did not leave even the Pope out of its predictions.
He expatiated vigorously in order to convince his audience that the Beast 666
mentioned in The Book of Revelation, the last book of the New Testament, was the
Pope, who was the Vicar of Christ on earth. Christian scholars are ingenious and
indefatigable in their efforts to prove their case. Rev. Hiten’s lectures led me
to ask that if the Bible foretold so many things – not even excluding the
"Pope" and "Israel", – then surely it must have something to
say about the greatest benefactor of mankind, prophet Muhammad, may the peace of
Allah be upon him. As a youngster I set out to search for an answer. I met
priest after priest, attended lectures, and read everything that I could lay my
hands relating to the fields of Bible prophecies. Tonight I’m going to narrate
to you one of these interviews with a Dominee of the Dutch Reformed Church.
Lucky Thirteen : I was invited to the Transvaal (South Africa) to deliver a talk
on the occasion of the birthday of the prophet Muhammad. Knowing that in that
province of the Republic, the Afrikaans language is widely spoken, even by my
own people, I felt that I ought to acquire a smattering of this language so as
to feel a little "at home" with the people. I opened the telephone
directory and began phoning the Afrikaans-speaking Churches. I indicated my
purpose to the priests that I was interested in having a dialogue with them, but
they all refused my request with "plausible" excuses. No. 13 was my
lucky number. The thirteenth call brought me pleasure and relief. A Dominee Van
Heerden ("Dominee" is the Afrikaans equivalent of "priest")
agreed to meet me at his home on the Saturday afternoon that I was to leave for
Transvaal. He received me on his verandah with a friendly welcome. He said if I
did not mind, he would like his father-in- law from the Free State, a 70 year
old man, to join us in the discussion. I did not mind. The three of us settled
down in the Dominee’s library. Why Nothing? I posed the question: "What
does the Bible say about Muhammad?" Without hesitation he answered:
"Nothing!" I asked: "Why nothing? According to your
interpretation the Bible has so many things to say about the rise of Soviet
Russia and about the Last Days and even about the Pope of the Roman
Catholics?" He said: "Yes, but there was nothing about Muhammad!"
I asked again: "Why nothing? Surely this man Muhammad who had been
responsible for the bringing into being a world-wide community of millions of
believers who, on his authority, believe in: the miraculous birth of Jesus, that
Jesus is the Messiah, that he gave life to the dead by God’s permission, and
that he healed those born blind and the lepers by God’s permission. Surely this
book (the Bible) must have something to say about this great leader of men who
spoke so well of Jesus and his mother Mary?" The old man from the Free
State replied: "My son, I have been reading the Bible for the past 50
years, and if there was any mention of him, I would have known it." Not One
by Name! I inquired: "According to you, are there not hundreds of
prophecies regarding the coming of Jesus in the Old Testament." The Dominee
interjected: "Not hundreds, but thousands!" I said: "I am not
going to dispute the thousand and one prophecies in the Old Testament regarding
the coming of Jesus Christ, because the whole Muslim world has already accepted
him without the testimony of any Biblical prophecy. Muslims have accepted the de
facto Jesus on the authority of Muhammad alone, and there are in the world today
no less than 900,000,000 followers of Muhammad, who love, respect, and revere
Jesus Christ as a great Messenger of God without having the Christians to
convince them by means of Biblical dialectics. Out of the ‘thousands’ of
prophecies referred to, can you please give me just one single prophecy where
Jesus is mentioned by name? The term Messiah, translated as Christ, is not a
name but a title. Is there a single prophecy where it says that the name of the
Messiah will be Jesus, and that his mother’s name will be Mary, that his
supposed father will be Joseph the Carpenter; that he will be born in the reign
of Herod the King, etc? No! There are no such details! Then how can you conclude
that those ‘Thousand’ prophecies refer to Jesus, peace be upon him?" What
is Prophecy? The Dominee replies: "You see, prophecies are word pictures of
something that is going to happen in the future. When that thing actually comes
to pass, we see vividly in these prophecies the fulfillment of what had been
predicted in the past." I said: "What you actually do is that you
deduce, you reason, you put two and two together." He said:
"Yes." I said: "If this is what you have to do with a ‘thousand’
prophecies to justify your claim with regards to the genuineness of Jesus, why
should we not adopt the very same system for Muhammad?" The Dominee agreed
that it was a fair proposition, a reasonable way of dealing with the problem. I
asked him to open up Deuteronomy, chapter 18, verse 18, which he did. I read
from memory the verse in Afrikaans, because this was my purpose in having a
little practice with the language of the ruling race in South Africa. "N
Profeet sal ek vir hulle verwek uit die midde van hulle broers, soos jy is, en
ek sal my woorde in sy mond le, en hy sy sal aan hulle se alle wat ekhom beveel."
(Deut 18:18) The English translation reads as follows: "I will raise them
up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and I will put my words
in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him."
(Deut 18:18) Prophet Like Moses : Having recited the verse in Afrikaans, I
apologized for my uncertain pronunciation; the Dominee assured me that I was
doing fine. I inquired: "To whom does this prophecy refer?" Without
the slightest hesitation he answered: "Jesus!" I asked: "Why
Jesus? his name is not mentioned here" The Dominee replied: "Since
prophecies are word pictures of something that is going to happen in the future,
we find that the wordings of this verse adequately describe him. You see, the
most important words of this prophecy are ’soos jy is’, ‘like unto thee’, or
‘like you’ – like Moses; and Jesus is like Moses." I asked the Dominee:
"In which way is Jesus like Moses?" The answer was: "In the first
place Moses was a Jew and Jesus was also a Jew; secondly, Moses was a Prophet
and Jesus was also a Prophet – therefore Jesus is like Moses and that is exactly
what God had foretold Moses – ’soos jy is’." "Can you think of any
other similarities between Moses and Jesus?" I asked. The Dominee said that
he could not think of any. I replied: "If these are the only two criteria
for discovering a candidate for this prophecy of Deuteronomy 18:18, then in that
case the criteria could fit any one of the following Biblical personages after
Moses:- Solomon, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Malachi, John the Baptist
etc., because they were also all Jews as well as Prophets. Why should we not
apply this prophecy to any one of these prophets, and why only to Jesus?"
The Dominee had no reply. I continued: "You see, my conclusions are that
Jesus is most unlike Moses, and if I am wrong I would like you to correct
me." Three Unlike : So staying, I reasoned with him: "In the first
place Jesus is not like Moses, because, according to you, Jesus is God, but
Moses is not God, is this true?" He said: "Yes." I said:
"Therefore Jesus is not like Moses!". "Secondly, according to
you, Jesus died for the sins of the world, but Moses did not have to die for the
sins of the world. Is this true?" He again said: "Yes." I said:
"Therefore Jesus is not like Moses!". "Thirdly, according to you,
Jesus went to Hell for three days, but Moses did not have to go there. Is this
true?" He answered meekly: "Y-e-s!" I concluded: "Therefore
Jesus is not like Moses!". "But Dominee,.." I continued:
"..these are not hard, solid facts, they are mere matters of belief over
which the little ones can stumble and fall. Let us discuss something very
simple, very easy that if the little ones are called in to hear the discussion,
would have no difficulty following it, shall we?" The Dominee was quiet
happy at the suggestion. Father and Mother "Moses had a father and a
mother. Muhammad also had a father and a mother. But Jesus had only a mother,
and no human father. Is this true?" He said: "Yes." I said:
"Daarom is Jesus nie soos Moses nie, maar Muhammad is soos Moses!"
Meaning: "Therefore Jesus is not like Moses, but Muhammad is like
Moses!" (By now the reader will realize that I was using the Afrikaans
language only for practice purposes. I shall discontinue its use in this
narration). Miraculous Birth "Moses and Muhammad were born in the normal,
natural course, i.e. the physical association of man and woman; but Jesus was
created by a special miracle. You will recall that we are told in the Gospel of
St. Matthew 1:18 "..before they came together, (Joseph the Carpenter and
Mary) she was found with child by the Holy Ghost." And St. Luke tells us
that when the good news of the birth of a holy son was announced to her, Mary
reasoned: "How shall this be, seeing I know not a man? And the angel
answered and said unto her, the Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power
of the highest shall overshadow thee"(Luke 1:35). The Holy Quran confirms
the miraculous birth of Jesus, in nobler and sublimer terms. In answer to her
logical question: ‘O my Lord! How shall I have a son when no man hath touched
me?’ The angel says in reply: ‘Even so, Allah createth what He willeth: when He
hath decreed a plan, He but saith to it ‘Be’, and it is’ (the Holy Quran, 3:47).
It is not necessary for God to plant a seed in man or animal. He merely wills it
and it comes into being. This is the Muslim conception of the of birth of Jesus.
(When I compared the Quran and the Biblical versions of the birth of Jesus to
the head of the Bible Society in our largest city, and when I inquired:
"Which version would you prefer to give your daughter, the Quranic version
or the Biblical version?" The man bowed his head and answered: "The
Quranic.")(see Christ in Islam for the author). In short, I said to the
Dominee: "Is it true that Jesus was born miraculously as against the
natural birth of Moses and Muhammad?" He replied proudly: "Yes!"
I said: "Therefore Jesus is not like Moses, but Muhammad is like Moses. And
God says to Moses in the Book of Deuteronomy 18:18 ‘Like unto thee’, ‘Like You’,
like Moses and Muhammad is like Moses." Marriage Ties "Moses and
Muhammad married and had children, but Jesus remained a bachelor all his life.
Is this true?" The Dominee said: "Yes." I said: "Therefore
Jesus is not like Moses, but Muhammad is like Moses." Jesus Rejected by his
People "Moses and Muhammad were accepted as prophets by their people in
their very lifetime. No doubt the Jews gave endless trouble to Moses and they
murmured in the wilderness, but as a nation, they acknowledged that Moses was a
Messenger of God sent to them. The Arabs too made Muhammad’s life impossible. He
suffered very badly at their hands. After 13 years of preaching in Mecca, he had
to emigrate from the city of his birth. But before his demise, the Arab nation
as a whole accepted him as the Messenger of Allah. But according to the Bible,
"He (Jesus) Came unto his own, but his own revived him not" (John
1:11). And even today, after two thousand years, his people, the Jews, as a
whole, have rejected him. Is this true?" The Dominee said: "Yes."
I said: "Therefore Jesus is not like Moses, but Muhammad is like
Moses." "Other Worldly" Kingdom "Moses and Muhammad were
prophets as well as kings. A prophet means a man who receives Divine Revelation
for the Guidance of man and this Guidance he conveys to God’s creatures as
received without any addition or deletion. A king is a person who has the power
of life and death over his people. It is immaterial whether the person wears a
crown or not, or whether he was ever addressed as king or monarch: if the man
has the prerogative of inflicting capital punishment, he is a king. Moses
possessed such a power. Do you remember the Israelite who was found picking up
firewood on Sabbath Day, and Moses had him stoned to death? (Numbers 15:13).
There are other crimes also mentioned in the Bible for which capital punishment
was inflicted on the Jews at the behest of Moses. Muhammad too, had the power of
life and death over his people. There are instances in the Bible of persons who
were given gift of prophecy only, but they were not in a position to implement
their directives. Some of these holy men of God who were helpless in the face of
stubborn rejection of their message, were the prophets Lot, Jonah, Daniel, Ezra,
and John the Baptist. They could only deliver the message, but could not enforce
the Law. Prophet Jesus, peace be upon him, also belonged to this category. The
Christian Gospel clearly confirms this. When Jesus was dragged before the Roman
Governor, Pontius Pilate, charged for sedition, Jesus made a convincing point in
his defense to refute the false charge: Jesus answered: "My Kingdom is not
of this world. If my Kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight,
that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now is my Kingdom not from
hence" (John 18:36). This convinced Pilate (a pagan) that though Jesus
might not be in full possession of his mental faculty, he did not strike him as
being a danger to his rule. Jesus claimed a spiritual Kingdom only; in other
words he only claimed to be a prophet. Is this true?" The Dominee answered:
"Yes." I said: "Therefore Jesus is not like Moses but Muhammad is
like Moses." No New Laws "Moses and Muhammad brought new laws and new
regulations for their people. Moses not only gave the Ten Commandments to the
Israelites, but a very comprehensive ceremonial law for the guidance of his
people. Muhammad comes to a people steeped in ignorance. They married their
step-mothers and buried their daughters alive; drunkenness, idolatry, and
gambling were the order of the day. There was hardly anything to distinguish
between the ‘man’ and the ‘animal’ of the time. From this abject ignorance,
Muhammad elevated the Arabs, in the words of Thomas Carlysle, ‘Into
torch-bearers of light and learning. To the Arab nation it was as a birth from
darkness into light. Arabia first became alive by means of it. A poor shepherd
people, roaming unnoticed in its deserts since the creation of the world. See,
the unnoticed becomes world notable, the small has grown world-great. Within one
century afterwards Arabia was at Granada on one hand and at Delhi on the other.
Glancing in valor and splendor, and the light of Genius, Arabia shines over
section of the world..’. The fact is that Muhammad gave his people a Law and