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Is Muhammad Foretold in the Bible?
Is Muhammad Foretold in the Bible?
by John Gilchrist
Contents:
During 1975 Ahmed Deedat held a series of lectures
at the Durban City Hall, two of which set out to prove
that Muhammad is foretold in the Bible. The first
lecture, entitled What the Bible Says About Muhammad,
dealt with the prophecy in Deuteronomy 18.18 in the
Old Testament, and in it Mr. Deedat sought to show
that Moses was predicting the coming of Muhammad when
speaking of a prophet to follow him who would be like
him. During 1976 Mr. Deedat published this lecture in
booklet form under the same title. In his second
lecture in 1975 he spoke on Muhammad the Natural
Successor to Christ and here he endeavoured to prove
that Jesus was foretelling the coming of Muhammad when
he exhorted his disciples to wait for the coming of
the one he called the Comforter who, he said, would
follow him.
Deedat's lectures were typical of numerous similar
attempts that have been made by Muslim writers over
the years to make these two particular prophecies fit
Muhammad. The effort has generally arisen from a verse
in the Qur'an which states that the coming of Muhammad
was foretold in the Jewish and the Christian Scriptures.
It reads:
Those who follow the Apostle, the unlettered Prophet,
whom they find mentioned in their own (Scriptures) -
in the Law and the Gospel. Surah 7.157
It is not surprising, therefore, to find that Muslims
have searched exhaustively through the "Law and the
Gospel" (the Tawrat and the Injil, the Old
and New Testaments respectively) for proof that these
two books indeed contain prophecies of the coming of
Muhammad. The Qur'an seems to suggest that these
prophecies would be found in the Torah and the Gospel
without much difficulty, but when Muslims have applied
themselves to finding these alleged predictions, they
have been unpleasantly surprised to discover that in
these two books it is Jesus who is the subject of the
many prophecies in them and not Muhammad. The birth
of Jesus, his ministry, parables, miracles,
crucifixion, resurrection, ascension, second coming,
deity, glory and honour are the concerns of the
prophetic texts of the Torah and the Gospel, and so
extensively do these prophecies herald his advent as
the ultimate climax of God's revealed truth and love
towards men that one cannot help but be struck by the
fact that the Bible makes no allowance for the anti-climax
of a "prophet" to follow him. Such prophecies
are conspicuous only by their absence.
Nevertheless, spurred on by the assurance in the
Qur'an that the Bible indeed foretells the coming of
Muhammad, Muslims have made every effort to find
these prophecies. The obvious dearth of material in
support of their quest has led most of them to wisely
rely solely on the two prophecies we have already
mentioned - one in each of the Testaments -, to prove
their claim. Others, like Kaldani and Vidyarthy, have
unwisely tried to apply every major prophecy in the
Bible to Muhammad (including striking predictions of
the crucifixion, atoning work and resurrection of
Jesus Christ in Isaiah 53 for example!), but the
shameless twists of interpretation that they have
been compelled to resort to together with an
abdication of all reason in their efforts to prove
their points has fortunately restrained other Muslims
from following in their steps and they have
accordingly relied solely on the two prophecies we
have mentioned, one by Moses and one by Jesus
respectively.
We are in the circumstances entitled to presume
that these two prophecies are believed by the Muslims
to be the strongest in support of their claims.
Accordingly, if it can be proved that these texts do
not in any way refer to Muhammad, or anticipate his
advent or prophethood, then the whole theory that
Muhammad is foretold in the Bible must simultaneously
fall to the ground.
We shall therefore in this booklet generously
consider the strongest evidence of the Muslims that
Muhammad is foretold in these two passages and will,
in the light of the context of each passage, and of
other factors crucial to a proper determination of
the matter, decide whether the evidence is sufficient
to prove the point or whether the case must ultimately
be found to go against them.
It is universally accepted in all civilised
communities that if a matter is to be determined
properly, all the relevant evidence must be weighed
together and all irrelevant evidence must be ignored
accordingly. No matter how great the temptation may be
to ignore the relevant facts while giving undue weight
to the irrelevant ones if this is the only way a matter
can be decided in one's favour, the man who really
loves the truth and seeks for it will resist the
temptation. It is our sincere hope that the Muslims who
read this document will do likewise.
"I will raise up for them a prophet like you from
among their brethren; and I will put my words in
his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that
I command him". Deuteronomy 18.18
Whenever Muslims seek to establish that Muhammad is
foretold in the Torah, the Old Testament, they
invariably refer to this verse as the one obvious
prophecy in support of their claim. They argue that
the prophet who was promised by God to Moses was
Muhammad because:
- The Qur'an is allegedly the Word of God and
therefore, as Muhammad recited each passage that
was delivered to him, he had the words of God put
into his mouth in accordance with the words of
this prophecy;
- The prophet to come would be from among
the brethren of the Israelites, hence the
Ishmaelites, because Israel (Jacob) and Ishmael
were both descended from Abraham, and the tribes
who descended from the twelve sons of Ishmael
are therefore "brethren" of the tribes who
descended from the twelve sons of Israel. As
Muhammad was the only Ishmaelite to claim
prophethood in the line of the Old Testament
prophets, they aver that the prophecy can only
refer to him;
- Muhammad was like Moses in so many ways that
the prophecy can only refer to him.
We shall consider these claims briefly and will do so
in the light of the context of the prophecy, for this
is the only way that a correct interpretation of the
text can be obtained. Every intelligent expositor of
scripture knows that no passage can be fairly
interpreted if it is isolated from its context.
Therefore it is essential to quote from the whole
passage in which the prophecy is found and the
following two extracts are of great importance:
The Levitical priests, that is, all the tribe of
Levi, shall have no portion or inheritance with
Israel; they shall eat the offerings by fire to
the Lord, and his rightful dues. They shall have
no inheritance among their brethren; the Lord is
their inheritance as he promised them.
Deuteronomy 18.1-2
The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet
like me from among you, from your brethren - him
shall you heed - just as you desired of the Lord
your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly, when
you said, 'Let me not hear again the voice of the
Lord my God, or see this great fire any more, lest
I die'. And the Lord said to me, 'They have rightly
said all that they have spoken. I will raise up for
them a prophet like you from among their brethren;
and I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall
speak to them all that I shall command him. And
whoever will not give heed to my words which he
shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of
him. But the prophet who presumes to speak a word
in my name which I have not commanded him to speak,
or who speaks in the name of other gods, that same
prophet shall die'. Deuteronomy 18.15-20
We shall proceed to briefly consider the three points
that supposedly prove that Muhammad is the prophet
referred to in the text and thereafter will, in the
light of the context of the passage, discover precisely
which prophet is referred to in the prophecy contained
in Deuteronomy 18.18.
Christians do not believe that the Qur'an is the Word
of God but, purely for the sake of argument, we shall
proceed as if God did indeed put his words in Muhammad's
mouth to discover whether this might prove that Muhammad
is the prophet referred to in Deuteronomy 18.18. In our
view the statement "I will put my words in his mouth"
does not help to identify the prophet referred to at
all. It is true of every prophet that God has put his
words in his mouth. For God said to Jeremiah:
"Behold I have put my words in your mouth".
Jeremiah 1.9
Furthermore we also read in Deuteronomy 18.18 that the
prophet to follow Moses "shall speak to them all that
I command him". Now we read that Jesus once said to
his disciples:
"For I have not spoken on my own authority;
the Father who sent me has himself given me
commandment what to say and what to speak.
And I know that his commandment is eternal life.
What I say, therefore, I say as the Father has
bidden me".
John 12.49-50.
A similar text which illustrates this point is found in
the great prayer which Jesus prayed on the last night
that he was with his disciples. He said:
"I have given them the words which thou gavest me".
John 17.8
In no way, therefore, can the identity of the prophet
in the text of Deuteronomy 18.18 be established from
the fact that God would put his words in his mouth.
With every prophet who is true this is the case and
the great prophet referred to in the text, who would
be uniquely like Moses in a way that none of the other
prophets were, must accordingly be identified from other
sources.
Muslims allege that the expression "their brethren" in
Deuteronomy 18.18 means the brethren of the Israelites,
hence the Ishmaelites. In this case, however, if we are
truly to discover the real identity of the prophet who
would be like Moses, we must consider the expression in
its context.
God said, "I will raise up for them a prophet like you
from among their brethren." Of whom is God speaking when
he speaks of "them" and "their"? When we go back to the
first two verses of Deuteronomy 18 we find the answer:
"The Levitical priests, that is, all the tribe of Levi,
shall have no portion or inheritance with Israel ...
they shall have no inheritance among their brethren".
Deuteronomy 18.1-2.
It is abundantly clear from these two verses that "they"
refers to the tribe of Levi and that "their brethren"
refers to the remaining eleven tribes of Israel. This
is an inescapable fact. No honest method of interpretation
or consistent method of exposition can possibly allow that
Deuteronomy 18.18 refers to anyone else than the tribe of
Levi and the remaining tribes of Israel. Let us briefly
examine the only possible exposition of the prophecy that
can lead to a correct interpretation and identification
of "their brethren". We need only accentuate
the relevant words from Deuteronomy 18.1-2 to discover
the only possible conclusion that can be drawn. The text
reads:
"The tribe of Levi shall have no inheritance with
ISRAEL. They shall have no inheritance among
THEIR BRETHREN".
Therefore the only logical interpretation of Deuteronomy
18.18 can be: "I will raise up for them (that is, the
tribe of Levi) a prophet like you from among their
brethren (that is, one of the other tribes of Israel)".
Indeed throughout the Old Testament one often finds the
expression "their brethren" meaning the remaining tribes
of Israel as distinct from the tribe specifically referred
to. Let us consider this verse as an example:
But the children of Benjamin would not listen to the
voice of their brethren, the children of Israel.
Judges 20.13
Here "their brethren" is specifically stated to be the
other tribes of Israel as distinct from the tribe of
Benjamin. In Deuteronomy 18.18, therefore, "their
brethren" clearly means the brethren in Israel of the
tribe of Levi. Again in Numbers 8.26 the tribe of Levi
is commanded to minister to "their brethren", that is,
the remaining tribes of Israel. In 2 Kings 24.12 the
tribe of Judah is distinguished from "their brethren",
once again the remaining tribes of Israel. (Further
scriptures proving the point are Judges 21.22,
2 Samuel 2.26, 2 Kings 23.9, 1 Chronicles 12.32,
2 Chronicles 28.15, Nehemiah 5.1 and others).
Indeed in Deuteronomy 17.15 we read that Moses on one
occasion said to the Israelites "One from among your
brethren you shall set as king over you; you may not
put a foreigner over you, who is not your brother".
Only an Israelite could be appointed king of Israel -
"one from among your brethren" - no foreigner, be he
Ishmaelite, Edomite or whoever he may be, could be made
King of Israel because he was not one of "their brethren",
that is, a member of one of the tribes of Israel.
At this stage, therefore, we have a fatal objection to
the theory that Muhammad is foretold in Deuteronomy 18.18.
He was an Ishmaelite and accordingly is automatically
disqualified from being the prophet whose coming was
foretold in that verse. The prophet was obviously to come
from one of the tribes of Israel other than the tribe of
Levi. God said he would raise up a prophet for the Levites
like Moses from among "their brethren", that is, from one
of the other tribes of Israel. As we intend to prove that
Jesus was the prophet whose coming was foretold it will
be appropriate to mention at this stage that he was
descended from the tribe of Judah (Matthew 1.2,
Hebrews 7.14). He is therefore ably qualified to be the
prophet who would be raised up from among the brethren of
the Levites.
The Islamic publications listed in the Bibliography to
this booklet are full of comparisons between Moses and
Muhammad where evidence is brought forward of certain
likenesses between them. These publications also produce
many differences between Jesus and Moses as the authors
try to disprove that Jesus is the prophet whose coming
was foretold in Deuteronomy 18.18.
In his booklet "What the Bible Says About Muhummed"
Mr. Deedat produces a number of similarities between
Moses and Muhammad which he claims do not exist between
Moses and Jesus. Most of these are meaningless, however,
and only serve to show the supreme uniqueness of Jesus
over against the whole human race. For example, Deedat
argues that Moses and Muhammad were both born naturally
of human parents and are buried on earth, whereas Jesus
was born of a virgin-woman, had no earthly father, and
ascended to heaven (Deedat, What the Bible Says About
Muhummed", p. 7, 12). It is obvious that all men have
natural parents and go back to the dust, and all Mr.
Deedat is doing is to reveal certain ways in which Jesus
was absolutely unique among men. This does not help to
identify the prophet predicted by Moses, however.
In the publications referred to we do find occasionally
more prominent likenesses between Moses and Muhammad
which do need to be analysed more carefully. Three such
comparisons are:
1. Moses and Muhammad became the lawgivers, military
leaders, and spiritual guides of their peoples and
nations;
2. Moses and Muhammad were at first rejected by their
own people, fled into exile, but returned some years
later to become the religious and secular leaders of
their nations;
3. Moses and Muhammad made possible the immediate and
successful conquests of the land of Palestine after
their deaths by their followers, Joshua and Umar
respectively.
At the same time it is alleged in these publications
that Jesus and Moses were so different, according to
Christian belief, that Jesus cannot be the prophet
referred to. Such differences are these:
1. Moses was only a prophet but, according to Christian
belief, Jesus is the Son of God;
2. Moses died naturally but Jesus died violently;
3. Moses was the national ruler of Israel which Jesus
was not at any time during his ministry here on earth.
We are constrained to ask: do these similarities and
contrasts in any way prove that Muhammad is the prophet
like Moses whose coming was foretold in Deuteronomy 18.18?
It is the easiest of matters to show that this sort of
reasoning will in no way assist us to discover the real
identity of the prophet. Firstly, none of the alleged
differences between Moses and Jesus are of any importance.
The Bible often calls Jesus a prophet as well as the Son
of God (see, for example, Matthew 13.57, 21.11, and
John 4.44) and the fact that Jesus died violently is
hardly relevant to the issues at stake. Many prophets
were killed by the Jews for their testimonies, a fact to
which both the Bible and the Qur'an bear witness,
(cf. Matthew 23.31, Surah 2.91). Furthermore the Bible
teaches that the Christian Church as a whole has replaced
the nation of Israel in this age as the collective object
of God's special favours. Likewise, whereas Moses led
that nation during his life on earth, so Jesus today heads
the Church of God from his throne in heaven above. In this
respect, therefore, he is really like Moses.
Secondly, if we reverse the process we can show many
similarities between Moses and Jesus where Muhammad at
the same time can be contrasted with them. Some of these
are:
1. Moses and Jesus were Israelites - Muhammad was an
Ishmaelite. (This is, as we have seen, a crucial factor
in really determining the identity of the prophet who
was to follow Moses).
2. Moses and Jesus both left Egypt to perform God's work -
Muhammad was never in Egypt. Of Moses we read: "By faith
he forsook Egypt" (Hebrews 11.27). Of Jesus we read:
"Out of Egypt have I called my Son" (Matthew 2.15).
3. Moses and Jesus forsook great wealth to share the
poverty of their people which Muhammad did not. Of Moses
we read: "He considered abuse suffered for the Christ
greater wealth than all the treasures of Egypt" and that
he chose "to share ill-treatment with the people of God"
(Hebrews 11.25-26). Of Jesus we read: "For you know the
grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich,
yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his
poverty you might become rich" (2 Corinthians 8.9).
So we have similarities between Moses and Jesus where
Muhammad can be contrasted with them. This shows how weak
the Muslim method of comparing Moses with Muhammad (while
contrasting them with Jesus) is, for it works both ways.
How then can we truly identify the prophet who was to be
like Moses?
As there were numerous prophets down the ages, it is
logical to assume that this prophet would be uniquely
like Moses in a way that none of the other prophets were.
Clearly the prophet to come would emulate him in the
exceptional and unique characteristics of his prophethood.
Indeed we would expect that God would give some indication
in the prophecy of the distinguishing features of this
prophet who was to be like Moses. We only have to refer
to the context of the prophecy to find this striking
verse which very clearly gives us an indication of the
nature of the prophet to follow:
"The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet
like me from among you, from your brethren - him you
shall heed - just as you desired of the Lord your God
at Horeb on the day of the assembly, when you said,
'Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God or
see this great fire any more, lest I die' ".
Deuteronomy 18.15-16.
The prophet would be raised up just as God had raised
Moses up as the mediator of the covenant which he gave
at Horeb. The Israelites pleaded with Moses to become a
mediator between them and God because they did not wish
to hear God's voice face to face, and God said "They have
rightly said all that they have spoken" (Deuteronomy 18.17).
God henceforth raised Moses up as the mediator of the
covenant between himself and Israel. We need also to
consider that God spoke to Moses in a very special way
as well and in the Bible we read:
Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face,
as a man speaks to his friend.
Exodus 33.11
The Qur'an also teaches that God spoke directly to Moses
in a way in which he did not speak to other prophets
(Surah 4.164). Furthermore, to confirm the great
mediatorial work which Moses was to perform, God did
great signs and miracles through him in the presence of
all Israel. Now as God had promised that the prophet to
come would be like him in this mediatorial work, we must
conclude that the distinguishing features of the prophet
would be these:
1. He would be the direct mediator of a covenant between
God and his people;
2. He would know God face to face;
3. His office would be confirmed by great signs and
wonders which he would do by the power of God in the
sight of all the nation of Israel.
This conclusion is in fact clearly established by these
last words in the Book of Deuteronomy:
And there has not arisen a prophet since in Israel like
Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face, none like him for
all the signs and wonders which the Lord sent him to do
in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all his servants
and to all his land, and for all the mighty power and all
the great and terrible deeds which Moses performed in the
sight of all Israel.
Deuteronomy 34.10-12.
The three distinguishing features of Moses as a prophet
are clearly mentioned: he was the mediator between God
and Israel, he knew the Lord face to face, and he did
great signs and wonders. The prophet like him would
obviously have to emulate these unique features of his
prophethood. Did Muhammad possess these exceptional
characteristics by which the prophet was to be recognised?
Firstly, whereas God spoke directly to Moses, so that he
was a direct mediator between God and the people of Israel,
the Qur'an is alleged to have come at all times from the
Angel Gabriel to Muhammad and at no time did God directly
communicate it to him face to face, as the Muslims
themselves admit. He also did not mediate a covenant
between God and the people of Israel.
Secondly, Muhammad performed no signs and wonders.
Although the Hadith record some fanciful miracles, these
are purely mythical, for the Qur'an very clearly says of
Muhammad that he performed no signs. In Surah 6.37, when
Muhammad's adversaries say "Why has no sign been sent down
to him from his Lord?", Muhammad is bidden to reply merely
that God could send one if he wanted to but had not done so.
In the same Surah we read that Muhammad said, "I have not
that for which you are impatient" (Surah 6.57), meaning
signs and wonders such as Moses had. He goes on to say that
if he had had them, the dispute between him and them would
have been decided long ago.
Again in the same Surah Muhammad's adversaries say they
will believe if signs come from God, but he only replies
that God has reserved them because they would still
disbelieve anyway (as indeed the Jews did with Jesus -
John 12.37). Furthermore the Qur'an also says that
Muhammad's adversaries in Mecca also once said to him:
"Why are not (signs) sent to him, like those which were
sent to Moses?"
Surah 28.48
The answer the Qur'an gives is much the same - they
rejected the signs of Moses anyway, so why do they now
expect Muhammad to perform signs? Nevertheless, in terms
of the prophecy in Deuteronomy 18.18, this was a very
poignant and significant observation for it plainly
distinguishes between Moses and Muhammad in the very
important matter of performing signs and wonders. How
indeed could Muhammad possibly be the prophet whose
coming was foretold in Deuteronomy 18.18 if he was not
granted the power to perform the kind of signs and wonders
performed by Moses? In this case, therefore, he was
definitely not like Moses in one of the vital,
distinguishing characteristics of his prophethood.
The Qur'an has its own testimony to this effect.
So we find that Muhammad was not a direct mediator
between God and man, nor could he do any signs and
wonders to confirm his office. Deuteronomy 34.11 makes
it essential that the prophet like Moses would do similar
signs and wonders to those which Moses did, and as
Muhammad did not, we have a second fatal objection
against the theory that he is the prophet foretold in
Deuteronomy 18.18. We can conclude by saying that whatever
evidence the Muslims may produce in favour of their
assertion, the really relevant and crucial evidence needed
to prove the point is not only unfavourable in his case
but in fact fatally rules out the possibility that he
might indeed be the prophet of whom Moses spoke.
Considering now whether Jesus is the prophet referred
to, let us begin by answering a few typical objections
raised by the Muslims. Firstly, if he was the Christ,
they say he could not be the prophet to follow Moses,
because the Jews distinguished between Elijah, the Christ,
and the prophet (John 1. 19-21). The argument goes that
John the Baptist is believed by the Christians to have
come in the spirit of Elijah, Jesus was the Christ, and
Muhammad, therefore, must have been the prophet. We have
already shown, however, that it is impossible for Muhammad
to be the prophet. In any even nothing conclusive can be
construed from the speculations of the Jews. They once
said of Jesus: "This is indeed the prophet" (John 7.40).
On another occasion they said he was "one of the prophets"
(Matthew 16.14), on another "a prophet" (Mark 6.15) and
worse still thought of him as both Elijah (Mark 6.15) and
John the Baptist himself (Matthew 16.14).
It needs to be pointed out that the Bible does not teach
that Elijah, the Christ, and the prophet were to come in
that order. The questions put by the Jews to John, whether
he was Elijah, the Christ, or the prophet, merely expressed
their own hopes and expectations of figureheads to come.
In the light of their confusion, however, we can see that
no serious consideration can be given to the distinctions
they made between the Christ and the prophet. It is also
important to note that the predictions of the prophet,
etc., were made in the reverse order in the Old Testament
(the prophet was promised by Moses, most of the prophecies
of the coming Christ were set out in the writings of the
later prophets, and the promise of the coming of Elijah
only appears at the end of the book in Malachi 4.5).
Furthermore no deliberate distinction between the prophet
and the Christ was ever drawn in these prophecies and it
is not surprising to find the Jews in one breath
proclaiming that Jesus was indeed both the prophet and the
Christ (John 7.40-41).
Another favourite objection is that Jesus died at the
hands of the Jews and God said, in Deuteronomy 18.20, that
only the self-styled prophets would die. Every prophet,
however, died - many violently as the Qur'an and the Bible
jointly testify - and the mere physical death of a prophet
was certainly no evidence against his divine mission. God
obviously did not mean that every true prophet would not
die! What he meant was that a false prophet was to be put
to death and would perish eternally - and all his
prophecies with him. Only Judgment Day will reveal all
the false prophets of the ages.
What we are ultimately concerned about is this - God
gave a definite promise that a prophet would arise like
Moses who would mediate another covenant and that signs
would accompany this covenant to confirm its heavenly
origin. The very Bible that contains the prophecy of the
prophet to come confirms quite clearly that that prophet
was Jesus Christ. The Apostle Peter, claiming that God
had foretold the coming of Jesus Christ through all the
prophets, appealed specifically to Deuteronomy 18.18 as
proof that Moses had done so (Acts 3.22). Jesus himself
said, "Moses wrote of me" (John 5.46) and it is difficult
to find elsewhere in the five books of Moses such a direct
prophecy of his advent. Peter chose Deuteronomy 18.18 as
the one distinctive prophecy in all the writings of Moses
of the coming of Jesus Christ into the world.
Likewise in Acts 7.37 Stephen appealed to Deuteronomy
18.18 as proof that Moses was one of those who had
"announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One",
Jesus, the one whom the Jews had recently betrayed and
crucified.
After witnessing all the signs that Jesus had done and
after taking part in the New Covenant which he had
mediated face-to-face between God and his people, the
early Christians knew that Jesus was the prophet whose
coming was foretold in Deuteronomy 18.18. They also knew
that the prophecy of a prophet to come like Moses had been
supplemented by God's promise to the prophet Jeremiah that
he would mediate a new covenant in the days to come
between himself and his people. For in speaking of this
new covenant God clearly distinguished between it and the
old covenant he had made with Moses and it was therefore
obvious that the one who would mediate it would be the
prophet whose coming Moses had foretold. God said:
"Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I
will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and
the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made
with their fathers when I took them by the hand to lead
them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant which they
broke, though I was their husband, says the Lord. But
this is the covenant which I will make with the house
of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put
my law within them, and I will write it upon their
hearts; and I will be their God and they shall be my
people. And no longer shall each man teach his neighbour
and each his brother, saying 'Know the Lord', for they
shall all know me, from the least of them to the
greatest, says the Lord; for I will forgive their
iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more".
Jeremiah 31.31-34.
"I will make a new covenant", God said, thereby confirming
the promise in Deuteronomy 18 that a prophet would come
to mediate between God and his people in the likeness of
Moses. The promised new covenant was directly compared
with the covenant God had made with Moses. The covenant
would be different to that given through Moses but the
prophet who would mediate it would be like him. It is
therefore quite obvious that the prophet whose coming
was foretold in Deuteronomy 18.18 would be the one to
mediate this new covenant between God and his people.
And we read: "Therefore Jesus is the mediator of a new
covenant" (Hebrews 9.15). To ratify the first covenant
we read that:
Moses took the blood and threw it upon the people, and
said, 'Behold the blood of the covenant which the Lord
has made with you in accordance with all these words'.
Exodus 24.8
Just as the first covenant had therefore been ratified
by the blood of a sacrificial offering, so the prophet
to follow Moses would be like him and would also ratify
God's new covenant with blood. And Jesus therefore said:
"This cup is the new covenant in my blood".
1 Corinthians 11.25
God's promise of the coming of a prophet like Moses who
would mediate a new covenant was one of the great
blessings in the days preceding the advent of Jesus
Christ. Although God mediated the old covenant through
Moses, the blazing fire the Israelites saw together with
the tempests and other portents made them "entreat that
no further messages be spoken to them. For they could
not endure the order that was given" (Hebrews 12.19-20).
They all broke the covenant (Jeremiah 31.31) and died in
the wilderness like flies (1 Corinthians 10.5). They
failed to receive the life that was promised to those
who abided by the old covenant.
Therefore God promised to their descendants that he
would raise up another prophet like Moses and would
mediate a new covenant through him which God's people
would both give heed to and obtain the promised
blessings accompanying it - true knowledge of God,
forgiveness of sins, power to keep God's law, and the
public favour of God (Jeremiah 31.33-34). This new
covenant Jesus brought in in due time.
Unlike the Israelites under the old covenant who fell
by the wayside, the people of God through this new
covenant have come "to the assembly of the firstborn who
are enrolled in heaven, and to a judge who is God of all,
and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus,
the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood
that speaks more graciously than the blood of Abel"
(Hebrews 12.23-24). This is the covenant which Jesus
brought in.
Jesus therefore is the promised prophet like Moses for
he mediated the new covenant between God and his people.
Like Moses (and in a way in which no other prophet could
compare), he also knew God face-to-face and became a
direct mediator between God and men. "I know him, I come
from him, and he sent me", Jesus said (John 7.29). Again
he proclaimed: "No one knows the Father except the Son,
and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him"
(Matthew 11.27). And yet again Jesus said: "Not that
anyone has ever seen the Father except him who is from
God - he has seen the Father" (John 6.46). And what
further evidence do we need that Jesus knew God face-to-face
and is the direct mediator between him and men than
these two verses: "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
No one comes to the Father but by me ... Anyone who has
seen me has seen the Father" (John 14.6, 14.9).
When he spoke to God face-to-face, "Moses did not know
that the skin of his face shone while he talked with
him" (Exodus 34. 29-30). When the image of the invisible
God was directly revealed through the transfigured face
of Jesus Christ, "his face did shine as the sun"
(Matthew 17.2). No other prophet could claim such a
distinction - no one else knew God face-to-face in such
a way that his face shone while he communed with him.
Not only was the new covenant mediated through Jesus
who knew God face-to-face as Moses had done, but he too
performed great signs and wonders to confirm his
mediatorial work. One of the greatest signs that Moses
did was to control the sea: "Moses stretched out his hand
over the sea; and the Lord caused the sea to go back by
a strong east wind" (Exodus 14.21). Although other
prophets had power over rivers (Joshua 3.13,
2 Kings 2.14), no other prophet emulated him in
controlling the sea until Jesus came and we read that
his disciples exclaimed "What manner of man is this,
that even the winds and the sea obey him?" (Matthew 8.27).
He caused a raging storm on the Sea of Galilee to cease
with just three words: "Peace - be still" (Mark 4.39).
Another of the great signs that Moses did was the
feeding of the Israelites with bread from heaven. When
the Israelites at the time of Jesus saw him perform a
similar miracle by feeding no less than five thousand
people with just a few loaves of bread they were
convinced that he was the promised prophet.
When the people saw the sign which he had done,
they said, 'This is indeed the prophet who is to
come into the world'.
John 6.14
When they saw the sign, they said "This is the prophet".
They knew well enough that the promised prophet would be
recognised among other things by the performance of signs
similar to those which Moses had done. When Jesus gave
no indication of repeating the sign, the Israelites
recalled that Moses had performed his feat for forty
years unabated. So they said to Jesus, "What sign do you
do that we may see and believe you?" (John 6.30),
appealing to Moses' act of sustaining the lives of their
forefathers in the wilderness. Jesus replied:
"I am the Bread of Life. Your fathers ate the manna
in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread
which comes down from heaven that a man may eat of
it and not die. I am the living bread which came
down from heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he
will live for ever; and the bread which I shall give
for the life of the world is my flesh".
John 6.48-51.
In every way he gave proof that he was the prophet who
was to come - one to mediate a covenant like that
mediated through Moses at Horeb - one who would know God
face-to-face - one who would perform great signs and
wonders as Moses had done. In every way the Jews were
right on this one point when they said "This is really
the prophet" (John 7.40).
So it is proved that Muhammad is not foretold in
Deuteronomy 18.18 but rather that the prophet whose
coming was foretold in that verse was Jesus Christ.
We shall go on to see that if Muhammad is not foretold
on the Old Testament, neither is he foretold in the New
Testament.
We shall again see that Jesus Christ is the climax of
all prophecy in all the revealed scriptures of God. For
all the promises, revelations and blessings of God are
vested in him - the fountainhead of the love and favour
of God towards men.
For all the promises of God find their Yes in him.
That is why we utter the Amen through him, to the
glory of God.
2 Corinthians 1.20
We shall also see, even more clearly, that in the Torah
and the Gospel there is only one Saviour, one man alone
through whom the favour of God can be obtained. While
there were many prophets in ages past - both true and
false - yet for us there is only one Lord and one
Saviour - Jesus Christ. Again it will be seen how deeply
God wishes to impress this truth upon all men that they
may believe in and follow Jesus Christ into the Kingdom
of Heaven.
For all who do not heed his words or believe in him
with all their hearts, there remains only a "fearful
prospect of judgment" (Hebrews 10.27) when God will
fulfill his warning in Deuteronomy 18.19 by requiring of
them their unbelief in the Saviour he sent and he will
surely dismiss them, one and all, from his presence for
ever and ever.
Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be
saved, you and your household.
Acts 16.31
Whenever Muslims seek to prove that Muhammad is
foretold in the New Testament, they immediately appeal
to the promise of Jesus that the "Comforter" would
follow him and claim that this Comforter was Muhammad
(particularly as in the Qur'an, Jesus is alleged to
have foretold the coming of Muhammad in Surah 61.6 in
similar language). Whereas the Revised Standard Version
uses the word "Counsellor" rather than "Comforter", we
shall use the word "Comforter" throughout this chapter
because it is more familiar to the Muslims. The texts
where the Comforter is mentioned by Jesus are:
"And I will pray the Father, and he will give you
another Comforter, to be with you for ever, even
the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive,
because it neither sees him nor knows him; you know
him, for he dwells with you, and will be in you".
John 14.16-17.
"But the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father
will send in my name, he will teach you all things,
and bring to your remembrance all that I have said
to you".
John 14.26
"But when the Comforter comes, whom I shall send you
from the Father, even the Spirit of Truth, who
proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness to me".
John 15.26
"Nevertheless I tell you the truth: it is to your
advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away,
the Comforter will not come to you; but if I go, I
will send him to you".
John 16.7
It is generally alleged by Muslims that the Greek word
"paracletos" (meaning Comforter, Counsellor, Advocate,
etc., in effect, one who unites men to God) is not the
original word but that Jesus in fact foretold the coming
of Muhammad by name and that the translation of his name
into Greek (or at least the meaning of his name in Greek)
is "periklutos", that is, the "praised one".
There is not a shred of evidence in favour of the
assertion that the original word was "periklutos". We
have thousands of New Testament manuscripts pre-dating
Islam and not one of these contains the word "periklutos".
In view of the fact that Muslims are prone to levelling
false allegations that Christians are regularly changing
the Bible, it is rather intriguing to find that they have
no scruples about doing this themselves when it suits
them to do so. In any event a cursory reading of the
texts where the word "paracletos" appears will show that
this is the only word that suits the context as I will
show in one instance later on in this chapter.
Some wiser Muslims admit that "paracletos" is correct,
but they claim in any event that Muhammad was the
Comforter whom Jesus was referring to. Let us briefly
examine some of the texts in a truly exegetical manner
to discover whether Muhammad is indeed the Comforter
whose coming Jesus foretold.
It is quite obvious from the four texts quoted that
Comforter, Holy Spirit, and Spirit of Truth are
interchangeable terms and that Jesus is speaking of the
same person in each instance. The one obvious fact that
emerges is that the Comforter is a spirit. (The fact that
Jesus always speaks of the Spirit in the masculine gender
in no way suggests that the Comforter must be a man as
some of the publications in the Bibliography suggest.
God himself is always spoken of in both the Bible and
the Qur'an in the masculine gender and God is spirit -
John 4.24. In the same way Jesus always speaks of the
Comforter as a spirit and not as a man).
If we apply sound exegesis to John 14.16-17 we shall
discover no less than eight reasons why the Comforter
cannot possibly be Muhammad.
1. "He will give YOU another Comforter".
Jesus promised his disciples that God would send the
Comforter to them. He would send the Spirit of Truth to
Peter, and to John, and to the rest of the disciples -
not to Meccans. Medinans or Arabians.
2. "He will give you ANOTHER Comforter".
If, as Muslims allege, the original word was periklutos
and that Christians changed it into paracletos, then the
sentence would have read, "He will give you another
praised one". This statement is both out of place in its
context and devoid of support elsewhere in the Bible.
Jesus is never called the "periklutos" in the Bible (the
word appears nowhere in the Bible) so it is grossly
unlikely that he would have said "He will give you another
praised one" when he never used that title for himself.
Worse still, as the Muslims allege that he actually
foretold the coming of Muhammad by mentioning his name,
the sentence in that case would have read "He will give
you another Muhammad". The further the Muslims try to
press the point, the more absurd it tends to become.
John 16.12-13 makes it clear that the word "paracletos"
is obviously the correct one. The text reads: "I have yet
many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.
When the Spirit of Truth comes, he will guide you into
all the truth". In other words, I have been your
Comforter, your paracletos, and have many things to tell
you, but I send the Spirit of Truth to you, another
Comforter, another paracletos.
In 1 John 2.1 we read that Christians have an
"advocate" with the Father, "Jesus Christ the Righteous",
and the word translated "advocate" is paracletos in the
Greek. So Jesus is our paracletos, our Comforter and
advocate with the Father, and he promised to give his
disciples another Comforter. It is therefore logical to
find that Jesus promised another paracletos when he
himself was described as the paracletos of his followers,
but it is illogical to suggest that he would speak of
"another periklutos" when the word was never used to
describe him in the first place.
3. "To be with you FOREVER".
When Muhammad came he did not stay with his people
forever but died in 632 AD and his tomb is in Medina
where his body has lain for over 1300 years. Nevertheless
Jesus said that the Comforter, once he had come, would
never leave his disciples, but would be with them forever.
4. "The Spirit of Truth whom the world CANNOT receive".
The Qur'an says that Muhammad came as a universal
messenger to men (Surah 34.28). If so, Jesus was not
referring to Muhammad for he said that the world cannot
receive the Comforter, the Spirit of Truth.
5. "You KNOW him".
It is quite obvious from this statement that the
disciples knew the Spirit of Truth. As Muhammad was only
born more than five hundred years later, it certainly
could not be him. The next clause brings out just how
the disciples knew him. At this stage we can see quite
clearly that the Comforter is a spirit who was in the
disciples' presence already.
6. "He dwells WITH you".
Where did the Comforter dwell with them? From various
verses, especially John 1.32, we can see that the Spirit
was in Jesus himself and so was with the disciples.
7. "He will be IN you".
Here the death-blow is dealt to the theory that
Muhammad is the Comforter, the Spirit of Truth. As the
Spirit was in Jesus, so he would be in the disciples as
well. The Greek word here is "en" and this means "right
inside". So Jesus was in fact saying "he will be right
inside you".
8. The last reason is really a re-emphasis of the first
one. Do you notice how often Jesus addresses his own
disciples when he speaks of the sphere of influence of
the Comforter? "You know him ... he dwells with you ...
he will be in you". Quite clearly the disciples were to
anticipate the coming of the Comforter as a spirit who
would come to them just after Jesus had left them. No
other interpretation can possibly be drawn from this
text. Only wishful thinking makes the Muslims allege
that Muhammad was foretold by Jesus, but a practical
interpretation of the texts destroys this possibility.
Let us read how the Spirit came to Jesus: "The Holy
Spirit descended upon him in bodily form, as a dove"
(Luke 3.22). We read that the Spirit, the Comforter,
came to the disciples in a similar way just after the
ascension of Jesus (as Jesus told them he would): "And
there appeared to them tongues as of fire, distributed
and resting on them. And they were all filled with the
Holy Spirit" (Acts 2.3-4). He was with the disciples in
the person of Jesus while he was still with them, and he
was in the disciples from the day of Pentecost. We thus
see the prediction Jesus made in John 14.17 duly fulfilled
in the coming of the Holy Spirit.
Within only ten days after the ascension of Jesus, the
disciples duly received the Comforter as he was promised
to them by Jesus. He had told them to wait in Jerusalem
until the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, should come
(Acts 1.4-8) as indeed he did while they were all together
praying for his advent in the city. Muhammad is right out
of this picture.
Moving on now to John 16.7 (quoted earlier), the whole
meaning of this verse also becomes clear from the
statement of Jesus, "I have many things to say to you,
but you cannot bear them now" (John 16.12). Jesus also
said: "It is to your advantage that I go away" (John 16.7).
The disciples could not bear his teaching now because they
were ordinary men devoid of power to comprehend or apply
what he said. The Spirit of Truth was indeed in Jesus, but
was not yet in his disciples, so they were unable to
follow the spiritual elements in his teaching. But after
the ascension they received the Spirit and could now
communicate and understand his teaching because the Spirit
of Truth was in them as well. That is why Jesus said "it
is to your advantage that I go away". This is made equally
clear elsewhere in the Bible:
What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart
of man conceived, what God has prepared for those
who love him, God has revealed to us through the
Spirit. For what person knows a man's thoughts
except the spirit of the man which is in him?
So no one comprehends the thoughts of God except
the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the
spirit of the world, but the spirit which is from
God, that we might understand the gifts bestowed
on us by God.
1 Corinthians 2.9-13.
Paul makes it plain that the Spirit had already been
given and if it had not, it could not have been to any
advantage to the disciples to be without Jesus once he
had ascended to heaven.
So it is abundantly proved that Muhammad is not the
Spirit of Truth, the Comforter, whose coming Jesus
foretold. Who is the Comforter then? He is the very
Spirit of the living God as can be seen from some of
the quotations already given. On the day when the
Comforter duly came upon the disciples, his coming was
accompanied by a tremendous sound, "like the rush of a
mighty wind" (Acts 2.2). When the Jews heard this, they
rushed together to see what was happening. Peter declared
to them all:
"This is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: 'And in
the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will
pour out my Spirit on all flesh' ".
Acts 2.16-17.
The Comforter, the Spirit of God, had come down on the
disciples as Jesus had promised and was to be given to
believing Christian men and women from every nation
under the sun. But notice how Peter linked the coming
of the Spirit with the ascension of Christ:
"This Jesus God raised up and of that we are all
witnesses. Being therefore exacted at the right
hand of God, and having received from the Father
the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured
out this which you see and hear".
Acts 2.32-33.
Clearly the coming of the Comforter was inseparably
linked to the risen, ascended glory of Jesus in the
highest place that heaven affords. The Comforter is
also called "the Spirit of Christ" (Romans 8. 9) and
the reason is plain from what Jesus said:
1. "He will glorify me" (John 16.14).
2. "He will bear witness to me" (John 15.26).
3. "He will convince the world concerning sin because
they do not believe in me" (John 16. 8-9).
4. "He will take what is mine and declare it to you" (John 16.14).
5. "He will bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you" (John
14.26).
Quite obviously the great work of the Comforter is to
bring people to Jesus, to make them see him as Saviour
and Lord, and to draw them to him. The Comforter was
given so that the glory of Jesus might be revealed to
men and in men. A beautiful example of this is given by
the Apostle John:
His disciples did not understand this at first; but
when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that
this had been written of him and done to him.
John 12.16
Without the Spirit, they had no understanding, but
when they received the Spirit after Jesus was glorified,
then they remembered as Jesus said they would. John
illustrates this in this passage as well:
On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus
stood up and proclaimed, 'If any one thirst, let
him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as
the scripture has said, out of his heart will flow
rivers of living water'. Now this he said about the
Spirit, which those who believed in him were to
receive; for as yet the Spirit had not been given,
because Jesus was not yet glorified.
John 7.37-39.
As soon as Jesus was glorified the Spirit was given so
that the glory of Jesus in heaven might become real to
men here on earth. As Peter said (Acts 2.33), once
Jesus was exalted at the right hand of God, the
Spirit was freely given to his disciples.
Again Peter said, "The God of our fathers glorified
Jesus" (Acts 3.13). We cannot see or comprehend this
glory of Jesus here on earth (and Jesus himself said,
"I do not receive glory from men" John 5.41), but he
sent the Spirit so that we might behold this glory by
the eye of faith. As Jesus himself said to his disciples
of the Spirit:
"He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine
and declare it to you. All that the Father has is
mine, therefore I said that he will take what is
mine and declare it to you".
John 16.14-15.
The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God and he is given
to all true believers so that the glory of Jesus in
heaven may become real to men on earth. John makes it
plain how a man receives the Holy Spirit:
Now this he spoke about the Spirit, which those who
BELIEVED in him were to receive.
John 7.39
To receive the Comforter, the Spirit of God, one must
believe in Jesus and surrender body and soul to him.
Without the Spirit no one sees or believes in the glory
of Christ, but for those who are his true followers and
who are sanctified by the Holy Spirit (1 Peter 1.2),
Peter says:
Without having seen him, you love him, though you
do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice
with unutterable and exalted joy. As the outcome
of your faith you obtain the salvation of your
souls.
1 Peter 1.8-9.
The distinction between those who have received the
Spirit and those who have not, those who have beheld
the glory of Christ and those who have not, comes out
very clearly as Peter continues to speak to his
fellow-believers:
To you therefore who believe, he is precious, but
for those who do not believe, 'The very stone which
the builders rejected has become the head of the
corner'.
1 Peter 2.7
The Bible says much about the Comforter, the Spirit
of Truth, but the great and most handsome work of
the Spirit is summed up in Jesus' words:
"HE WILL GLORIFY ME".
John 16.14
Although the Spirit had been at work in the world
before the advent of Jesus Christ, and had indeed
filled many of the great prophets and men of old with
a longing for the coming Christ, he only finally united
himself to men, and men to God, and indeed true
believers to one another after the resurrection and
ascension of Christ to heaven.
Jesus Christ spoke to his OWN disciples of the coming
of the Comforter because the Spirit was sent down to
comfort and regenerate all true believers in Jesus.
This is one of the most significant and consistent
elements of the teaching of Jesus about the Comforter.
The prime purpose of the coming of the Comforter -
immediately after the ascension of Jesus - was to draw
men to him so that those who are influenced by the
work of the Comforter will therefore become followers
of Jesus. It is further evidence against the theory that
Muhammad was the Comforter for, whereas the Comforter
would not speak of himself but only of Jesus, Muhammad
drew attention away from Jesus to himself, describing
himself as the ultimate apostle of God to be followed
and obeyed. The Comforter was never to do a thing like
this. Jesus made it plain that the Comforter would draw
the attention and faith of all men to himself and would
glorify him before the eyes of faith of true believers
as the Lord of glory in heaven.
After Jesus Christ had ascended to heaven to be
glorified at the right hand of God above all the angels
and departed saints, the Comforter came immediately upon
his disciples to make this glory real to them and through
them to spread it all over the world. For Jesus Christ is
the very image of the Father's glory. In him are all
things united, whether in heaven or on earth. He is the
climax of God's plan for the fulness of time. He is the
beginning and the end of all God's gracious work in all
ages - for all the salvation and glory that God has
prepared for those who love him are vested in Jesus.
The Comforter came to give us a foretaste of this
glory. He came to make the resplendent glory of Jesus
real to those who follow him. As Moses encouraged his
people to look forward to the prophet who would be like
him, who would mediate a new covenant to save all who
truly believe, so the Comforter encourages Christ's
followers in this age to look up to the risen, ascended,
Lord Jesus Christ who sits on the throne of God in
eternal glory above the heavens.
Far from Muhammad being foretold in the Bible, every
prophecy, every agent of God, every true prophet and
spirit, looks upward towards the radiance of the
Father's glory, the one who sits upon the throne, the
Lord Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ ascended to heaven - God took him to
himself. For Jesus alone is the Redeemer of the world.
He alone is able, as a man, to enter the holy presence
of the Father's throne and fill it with his own glorious
majesty. So likewise he is able to reconcile sinful men
to God and will one day be seen again in all his
splendour as he comes to call his own - those who
eagerly awaited his coming before his time and all those
who since his sojourn on this earth look forward to his
return from heaven - to be with him where he is to
behold with awe the glory which the Father gave him in
his love for him before the foundation of the world.
Moses rejoiced to see his day when speaking of the
prophet to come. The Comforter today still rejoices to
reveal his glory and majesty to those in whom he dwells.
The angels and departed saints await with longing for
the day when he shall be revealed to all the universe
in all his magnificence - when all men shall be raised
from the dead to see the Son of man coming on the clouds
of heaven with power and great glory, a day when the
Comforter's work will be finally completed, a day when
every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that it
is Jesus Christ who is Lord - to the everlasting glory
of God the Father - Amen!
BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS:
Badawi, Dr J - Muhammad in the Bible. (Islamic Information
Foundation, Halifax, Canada, 1982).
Dawud, Prof A - Muhammad in the Bible.
(Angkatan Nahdhatul- Islam Bersatu, Singapore, 1978).
Deedat, A H - Muhammad in the Old and the New Testaments.
(Uthmania Islamic Service Centre, Johannesburg,
South Africa. n.d.)
Deedat, A H - Muhammad Successor to Jesus Christ as portrayed in
the Old and New Testaments. (Muslim Brotherhood Aid
Services, Johannesburg South Africa n.d.)
Deedat, A H - What the Bible says about Muhammad. (Islamic
Propagation Centre, Durban, South Africa, 1976)
Durrani, Dr M H - Muhammad - The Biblical Prophet.
(International Islamic Publishers, Karachi,
Pakistan, 1980).
Gilchrist, J D - The Prophet after Moses. (Jesus to the
Muslims, Benoni, South Africa, 1976).
Gilchrist, J D - The Successor to Christ. (Jesus to the Muslims,
Benoni, South Africa, 1975).
Hamid, S M A - Evidence of the Bible about Mohammad.
(Karachi, Pakistan, 1973).
Jamiat, U N - The Prophet Muhammad in the Bible. (Jamiat
Ulema Natal, Wasbank, South Africa, n.d.)
Kaldani D B - Mohammad in the Bible. (Abbas Manzil
Library, Allahabad, Pakistan, 1952).
Lee, F N - Muhammad in the Bible? (Unpublished M.Th.
thesis, Stellenbosch, South Africa, 1964).
S G Mission - The Prophet like unto Moses. (Scripture Gift
Mission, London, England, 1951).
Shafaat, Dr A - Islam and its Prophet: A Fulfilment of
Biblical Prophecies. (Nur Al Islam Foundation,
Ville St Laurent, Canada, 1984).
Vidyarthy, A H - Muhammad in World Scriptures. (Volume 2,
Ahmadiyya Anjuman Ishaat-l-lslam, Lahore, Pakistan,
1968).
Y.M.M.A. - Do you know? The Prophet Muhammad is prophesied
in the Holy Bible! (Young Men's Muslim Association.
Johannesburg, South Africa, 1960).
ARTICLES IN OTHER BOOKS:
Niazi, K - The Bible and the last Prophet. (The Mirror of
Trinity, S M Ashrai', Lahorc, Pakistan, 1975).
Pfander, C G - Is the Mission of Mohammad foretold in
the Old or New Testaments? Mizanul Haqq - the
Balance of Truth, Church Missionary House, London,
England, 1867).
Robson, J - Does the Bible speak of Muhammad? (The Muslim
World, Vol. 25, p. 17).
Smith, P - Did Jesus Foretell Ahmed? (The Muslim World,
Vol. 12, p. 71).
Tisdall, W St C - Does the Bible Contain Prophecies
concerning Muhammad? (Mizanul Haqq - The Balance of
Truth, Revised Edition, Religious Tract Society,
London, England, 1910).
LECTURES ON TAPE:
Deedat, A H - Muhammad the Natural Successor to Christ.
(Durban City Hall, Durban, South Africa, 1975)
Books by John Gilchrist
Answering Islam Home Page