Old and New Testament Prophecies of Muhammad ( Islam) Bible vs Quran with regards to Jesus (pbuh)

Old and New Testament Prophecies of Muhammad

God promises the lineage of Abraham to be named through both Ishmael and Isaac

through Isaac shall your descendants be named. And I will make a nation of the son of the slave woman [Ishmael] also, because he is your offspring." (Genesis 21:13-14)

The descendants of Ishmael to be a great nation

Abraham had left Hagar and their newborn, Ishmael in Makkah (or Paran)...when the water in the skin was gone, she cast the child under one of the bushes. Then she went, and sat down over against him a good way off, about the distance of a bow shot; for she said, "Let me not look upon the death of the child." And as she sat over against him, the child lifted up his voice and wept. And God heard the voice of the lad; and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven, and said to her, "What troubles you, Hagar? Fear not;for God has heard the voice of the lad where he is. Arise, lift up the lad, and hold him fast with your hand; for I will makehim a great nation." (Genesis 21:16-19)

Ishmael settles in Makkah (referred to as Paran)

And God was with the lad [Ishmael], and he grew up; he lived in the wilderness, and became an expert with the bow.He lived in the wilderness of Paran; (Genesis 21:21)

Reference to Moses, Jesus and Muhammad (in order)

This is the blessing with which Moses the man of God blessed the children of Israel before his death. He said, "The LORD came fromSinai, and dawned fromSe'irupon us; he shone forth from MountParan, he came from the ten thousands of holy ones.. (Deuteronomy 33:1-3)

Sinai- is reference to Moses. It is an obvious reference to Mount Sinai where Moses received revelation.Seir is reference to Jesus. It is usually associated with the chain of mountains west and south of the Dead Sea extending through Jerusalem and Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus.Paran is reference to the location where Ishmael settled. The Prophet Muhammad was born in Paran (Makkah) and having migrated from Makkah, here turned to conquer the city with 10,000 of his companions.

Prophet just like Moses

Deuteronomy 18:18  I (God) will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee (Moses), and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him.

Many Christians believe this prophecy foretold by Moses to be in regards to Jesus.  Indeed Jesus was foretold in the Old Testament, but as will be clear, this prophecy does not fit him, but rather is more deserving of Muhammad, may the blessing and mercy of God be upon him.  Moses foretold the following:

1. The Prophet Will Be Like Moses

Areas of Comparison	Moses	Jesus	Muhammad
Birth	normal birth	miraculous, virgin birth	normal birth
Mission	prophet only	said to be Son of God	prophet only
Parents	father & mother	mother only	father & mother
Family Life	married with children	never married	married with children
Acceptance by own people	Jews accepted him	Jews rejected him	Arabs accepted him
Political Authority	Moses had it (Num 15:36)	Jesus refused it	Muhammad had it
Victory Over Opponents	Pharaoh drowned	said to be crucified	Makkans defeated
Death	natural death	claimed to be crucified	natural death
Burial	buried in grave	empty tomb	buried in grave
Divinity	not divine	divine to Christians	not divine
Began Mission at age	40	30	40
Resurrection on Earth	not resurrected	resurrection claimed	not resurrected

2. The Awaited Prophet will be from theBrethrenof the Jews

The verse in discussion is explicit in saying that the prophet will come amongst the Brethren of the Jews. Abraham had two sons: Ishmael and Isaac.  The Jews are the descendants of Isaacs son, Jacob. The Arabs are the children of Ishmael. Thus, the Arabs are the brethren of the Jewish nation. The Bible affirms:

And he (Ishmael) shall dwell in the presence of all  his brethren.(Genesis 16:12)

And he (Ishmael) died in the presence of all his brethren.(Genesis 25:18)

The children of Isaac are the brethren of the Ishmaelites.  Likewise, Muhammad is from among the brethren of the Israelites, because he was a descendant of Ishmael the son of Abraham.

3. God will Put His Words in the Mouth of theAwaited Prophet

The Qurān says of Prophet Muhammad:

Nor does he speak from [his own] inclination.It is not but a revelation revealed.Qurān 53:3-4

This is quite similar to the verse in Geneses 18:15:

I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee,and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him(Geneses18:18)

The Prophet Muhammad came with a message to the whole world, and from them, the Jews.  All, including the Jews, must accept his prophethood, and this is supported by the following words:

The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken.(Deuteronomy 18:15)

4. A Warning to Rejecters

The prophecy continues:

Deuteronomy 18:19  And it shall come to pass,[that] whosoever will not hearken unto mywordswhich he shall speak in my name, I will require [it] of him. (in some translations: I will be the Revenger).

Interestingly, Muslims begin every chapter of the Qurān in the name of God by saying:

Bismillah ir-Rahmanir-Raheem -In the Name of God, the Most Gracious Most Merciful.

Abdul-Ahad Dawud, was the former Rev. David Benjamin Keldani, BD, a Roman Catholic priest of the Uniate-Chaldean sect.  After accepting Islām, he wrote the book, Muhammadin the Bible.  He writes about this prophecy:

If these words do not apply to Muhammad, they still remain unfulfilled.  Jesus himself never claimed to be the prophet alluded to.  Even his disciples were of the same opinion: they looked to the second coming of Jesus for the fulfillment of the prophecy (Acts 3: 17-24).  So far it is undisputed that the first coming of Jesus was not the advent of the Prophet like unto thee and his second advent can hardly fulfill the words.  Jesus, as is believed by his Church, will appear as a Judge and not as a law-giver; but the promised one has to come with a fiery law in his right hand.

New Testament Prophecy

John 14:16  And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever.

In this verse, Jesus promises that another Comforter will appear, and thus, we must discuss some issues concerning this Comforter.

The Greek word paravklhto,ho parakletos, has been translated as Comforter.Parakletosmore precisely means one who pleads anothers cause, an intercessor.Theho parakletosis a person in the Greek language, not an in corporealentity.  In the Greek language, every noun possesses gender; that is, it is masculine, feminine or neutral.  In the Gospel of John, Chapters 14, 15and 16 theho parakletosis actually a person.  All pronouns in Greek must agree in gender with the word to which they refer and the pronounhe is used when referring to theparakletos.  The New Testament uses the wordpneuma, which means breath or spirit, the Greekequivalent ofruah, the Hebrew word for spirit used in the Old Testament.Pneumais a grammatically neutral word and is always represented by the pronoun it.

All present day Bibles are compiled from ancient manuscripts, the oldest dating back to the fourth century C.E.  No two ancient manuscripts are identical.All Bibles today are produced by combining manuscripts with no single definitive reference.  The Bible translators attempt to choose the correct version.  In other words, since they do not know which ancient manuscript is the correct one, they decide for us which version for a given verse to accept.  Take John 14:26 as an example.  John 14:26 is the only verse of the Bible which associates theParakletoswith the Holy Spirit.  But the ancient manuscripts are not in agreement that the Parakletosis the Holy Spirit.  For instance, the famous Codex Syriacus, written around the fifth century C.E., and discovered in 1812 on Mount Sinai, the text of 14:26 reads; Paraclete, the Spirit; and not Paraclete, theHoly Spirit.

Muslim scholars state that what Jesus actually said in Aramaic represents more closely the Greek wordperiklytoswhich means the admired one. In Arabic the word Muhammad means the praiseworthy, admired one. In other words,periklytosisMuhammad in Greek.  We have two strong reasons in its support. First, due to several documented cases of similar word substitution in the Bible, it is quite possible that both words were contained in the original text but were dropped by a copyist because of the ancient custom of writing words closely packed, with no spaces in between.  In such a case the original reading would have been, and He will give you another comforter (parakletos),the admirable one (periklytos).  Second, we have the reliable testimony of at least four Muslim authorities from different eras who ascribedadmired, praised one as a possible meaning of the Greek or Syriac word to Christians scholars.

The following are some who attest that the Paraclete is indeed an allusion to Prophet Muhammad,

TheFirst Witness

Anselm Turmeda(1352/55-1425 C.E.), a priest and Christian scholar, was a witness to the prophecy. After accepting Islām he wrote the book,Tuhfat al-arib fi al-radd ala Ahlal-Salib.

TheSecond Witness

Abdul-Ahad Dawud, wasthe former Rev. David Abdu Benjamin Keldani, BD, a Roman Catholic priest of theUniate-Chaldean sect..  After accepting Islām, he wrote the book,Muhammad in the Bible.  He writes in this book: There is not the slightest doubt that by Periqlyte, Prophet Muhammad, i.e. Ahmad, is intended.

TheThird Witness

Commenting on the verse where Jesus predicts the coming of Prophet Muhammad:

a messenger who shall come after me, whose name shall be Ahmad

Qurān 61:6

Asad explains that the word Parakletos:

[it] is almost certainly a corruption of Periklytos (the Much-Praised), an exact Greek translation of the Aramaic term or name Mawhamana.  (It is to be borne in mind that Aramaic was the language used in Palestine at the time of, and for some centuries after Jesus and was thus undoubtedly the language in which the original - now lost - texts of the Gospels were composed.) In view of the phonetic closeness of Periklytos and Parakletos it is easy to understand how the translator - or, more probably, a later scribe - confused these two expressions.  It is significant that both the Aramaic Mawhamana and the Greek Periklytos have the same meaning as the two names of the Last Prophet,Muhammad and Ahmad, both of which are derived from the Hebrew verb hamida (he praised) and the Hebrew noun hamd (praise).

Holy spirit or Prophet?

Why is it important?  It is significant because in biblical language a spirit,simply means a prophet.

Beloved, believe note very spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.

It is instructive to know that several biblical scholars consideredparakletosto be anindependent salvific (having the power to save) figure, not the Holy Ghost.

Let us further study whether Jesusparakletos, Comforter, was a Holy Ghost or a person (a prophet) to come after him?  When we continue reading beyond chapter 14:16and chapter 16:7, we find that Jesus predicts the specific details of the arrival and identity of theparakletos.  Therefore, according to the context of John 14 & 16 we discover the following facts.

1.Jesus said the parakletos is a human being:

John 16:13 He will speak.

John 16:7 for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you.

It is impossible that the Comforter be the Holy Ghost because the Holy Ghost was present long before Jesus and during his ministry.

John 16:13 Jesus referred to the paraclete as he and not it seven times, no other verse in the Bible contains seven masculine pronouns.  Therefore,paracleteisa person, not a ghost.

2.Jesus is called a parakletos:

And if any man sin, we have an advocate(parakletos) with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. (1 John 2:1)

Here we see that parakletos is a physical and human intercessor.

3.The Divinity of Jesus a later innovation:

Jesus was not accepted as divine until the Council of Nicea, 325 C.E., but everyone, except Jews,agree he was a prophet of God, as indicated by the Bible:

Matthew 21:11 ...This is Jesus the prophet of Nazareth of Galilee.

Luke 24:19 ...Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people.

4.Jesus prayed to God for another parakletos:

John 14:16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another parakletos.

5. Jesus describes the function of the other Parakletos:

John 16:13 He will guide you into all the truth.

God says in the Qurān:

O mankind!  The Messenger has now come unto you with the truth from your Lord, so believe; it is better for you

Qurān 4:170

John 16:14 He will glorify Me.

The Qurān brought by Muhammad glorifies Jesus:

[And mention] when the angels said, "O Mary, indeed God gives you good tidings of a word from Him, whose name will be the Messiah, Jesus, the son of Mary distinguished in this world and the Hereafter and among those brought near [to God].

Qurān 3:45

The Prophet Muhammad also glorified Jesus, Hesaid Whoever testifies that none deserves worship except God, who has no partner, and that Muhammad is His servant and Messenger, and that Jesus is the servant of God, His Messenger, and His Word which He bestowed in Mary, and a spirit created from Him, and that Paradise is true, and that Hell is true, God will admit him into Paradise, according to his deeds.

John 16:8 he will convince the world of its sin,and of Gods righteousness, and of the coming judgment.

The Qurān announces:

They have certainly disbelieved who say, "God is the Messiah, the son of Mary" while the Messiah has said, "O Children of Israel, worship God, my Lord and your Lord." Indeed, he who associates others with God - God has forbidden him Paradise, and his refuge is the Fire.And there are not for the wrongdoers any helpers.

Qurān 5:72

John 16:13 he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, [that] shall he speak.

The Qurān says of Prophet Muhammad:

Nor doeshe speak from [his own] inclination.It is not but a revelation revealed.

Qurān 53:3-4

John 14:26and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.

The words of the Qurān:

while the Messiah has said, O Children of Israel, worship God, my Lord and your Lord.

Qurān 5:72

reminds people of the first and greatest command of Jesus they have forgotten: The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; the Lord our God is one Lord. (Mark 12:29)

John 16:13 and He will disclose to you what is to come.

The Qurān states:

That is from the news of the unseen which We reveal, [O Muhammad], to you

Qurān 12:102

Hudhaifa, a companion of Prophet Muhammad, tells us: The Prophet once delivered a speech in front of us wherein he left nothing but mentioned everything that would happen till the Hour (of Judgment).

John 14:16 that he may abide with you for ever.

meaning his original teachings will remain forever. Muhammad was Gods last prophet to humanity. His teachings are perfectly preserved. He lives in the hearts and minds of his adoring followers who worship God in his exact imitation. No man,including Jesus or Muhammad, has an eternal life on earth.Parakletosis not an exception either. This cannot be an allusion to the Holy Ghost,for present day creed of the Holy Ghost did not exist until the Council of Chalcedon, in 451 C.E., four and half centuries after Jesus.

John 14:17 he will be the spirit of truth...meaning he will be a true prophet, see 1 John 4: 1-3.

John 14:17 the world neither sees him...

Many people in the world today do not know Muhammad.

John 14:17 ...nor knows him

Fewer people recognise the real Muhammad, Gods Prophet of Mercy.

John 14:26 the Advocate (parakletos)

Prophet Muhammad will be the advocate of humanity at large and of sinful believers on Judgment Day.People will look for those who can intercede on their behalf to God to reduce the distress and suffering on the Day of Judgment.  Adam, Noah, Abraham,Moses and Jesus will excuse themselves. Then they will come to the ProphetMuhammad and he will say, I am the one who is able.  So he will intercede for the people in the Great Plain of Gathering, so judgment may be passed.  This is the Station of Praise God promises Him in the Qurān:

It may be that your Lord will raise you to the Station of Praise (the honour of intercession on the Day of Resurrection)

Qurān17:79

The Prophet Muhammad said:My intercession will be for those of my nation who committed major sins.and I shall be the first intercessor in Paradise.

Gospel of Barnabas

And [mention] when Jesus, the son of Mary, said, O children of Israel, indeed I am the messenger of God to you confirming what came before me of the Torah and bringing good tidings of a messenger to come after me, whose name is Ahmad [another name of the Prophet Muhmmad]. But when he came to them with clear evidences, they said, This is obvious magic.

Qurān 61:6

The Gospel of Barnabas is attributed to Barnabas,one of the twelve disciples of Jesus. The complete authenticity of this Gospel has not been established, but it is nevertheless startling, that there are many references explicitly naming the Prophet Muhammad in it. In chapter 163 of the Gospel we read;

Jesus went into the wilderness beyond Jordan with his disciples, and when the midday prayer was done he sat down near to a palm tree, and under the shadow of the palm-tree his disciples sat down. Then Jesus said: So secret is predestination, O brethren, that I say to you, truly, only to one man shall it be clearly known. He it is whom the nations look for, to whom the secrets of God are so clear that, when he comes into the world,blessed shall they be that shall listen to his words, because God shall over shadow them with his mercy even as this palm-tree overshadows us. Yes, even as this tree protects us from the burning heat of the sun, even so the mercy of God will protect from Satan them that believe in that man. The disciples answered, O Master, who shall that man be of whom you speak, who shall come into the world? Jesus answered with joy of heart: He isMuhammad; Messenger of God,and when he comes into the world, even as the rain makes the earth to bear fruit when for a long time it has not rained, even so shall he be occasion of good works among men, through the abundant mercy which he shall bring. For h eis a white cloud full of the mercy of God, which God shall sprinkle upon the faithful like rain.

A complete translation of the Gospel of Barnabas is available online:www.quranproject.org

RecommendedReading:

What did Jesus Really Say? by Mishaal ibn Abdullah

Izharul-Haq [Truth Revealed] by Rahmatullah Kairanvi

The Choice by Ahmed Deedat

The First and Final Commandment A Search for Truth in Revelation within Abrahamic Religions by Dr. Laurence B. Brown

Muhammadin the Bible by Prof. Abdul-Ahad Dawud

The Bibles Last Prophet by Faisal Siddiqui

The Dead Sea Scrolls, The Gospel of Barnabas and the New Testament by M.A. Yussuff

Al-Jawabas-Sahih by Ibn Taymiyyah