AN
AWAITED PROPHET AFTER JESUS CHRISTUS
A Companion once asked
God’s Messenger to talk about himself. He said: “I am the one for whose coming
Abraham prayed and of whom Jesus gave glad tidings.” This alludes to the
following Qur’anic verses:
(Abraham
prayed): “Our Lord, raise up in their midst a Messenger from among them who
shall recite unto them Your signs, and teach them the Book and Wisdom, and
purify them. Verily you are the All-Mighty, the All-Wise.” (2:129)
When
Jesus, son of Mary, said: “O children of Israel! I am indeed a Messenger of God
to you, confirming that which was [revealed] before me in the Torah, and
bringing good tidings of a Messenger who shall come after me, whose name is Ahmad
[the Praised One].” (61:6)
The Torah and the Psalms
The Messenger of God
was expected. All preceding Prophets spoke of and predicted his coming. The
Qur’an (3:81) specifically states that God made a covenant with the Prophets that
they would believe in and help the Messenger who would come after them and
confirm the Message that they brought.
The current versions
of the Torah, the Gospel, and the Psalms still contain verses alluding to
Prophet Muhammad. The late Husayn Jisri found 114 such allusions and quoted them
in his Risalat al-Hamidiya. I will cite a few examples here:
The Lord came from Sinai
and dawned over them from Seir; He shone forth from Mount Paran (Deuteronomy
33:2).
This refers to the Prophethood
of Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad, respectively. Sinai is where Prophet Moses spoke
to God and received the Torah. Seir, a place in Palestine, is where Prophet
Jesus received Divine Revelation. Paran is where God manifested Himself to
humanity for the last time through His Revelation to Prophet Muhammad. Paran is
a mountain range in Makka. It is mentioned in the Torah (Genesis 21:19-21) as
the desert area where Hagar was left by her husband Abraham to live with her son
Ishmael. The Zamzam well also is located there. As stated in the Qur’an
(14:35-37), Abraham left Hagar and Ishmael in the valley of Makka, which was then
an uninhabited place between the mountain ranges of Paran. It is because of
such explicit predictions in the Torah that the Jews were expecting the Last
Prophet and knew that he would appear in Makka.
The verse of
Deuteronomy continues:
He came with myriads of
holy ones; in his right hand was an
axe of fire with two edges.
This refers to the
promised Prophet, who would have many Companions of the highest degree of sainthood
and would be allowed—even ordered—to fight his enemies.
The following verses
also promise his coming:
The
Lord said to me [Moses]: “What they say is good. I will raise up for them a
Prophet like you among their brothers; I will put My words in his mouth, and he
will tell them everything I command him. If anyone does not listen to My words that
the Prophet speaks in My name, I will Myself call him to account.” (Deuteronomy
18:17-19)
It is clear from these
verses that a Prophet like you among their brothers means a Prophet from
Ishmael’s line, for Ishmael is the brother of Isaac, the forefather of
the Children of Israel. The only Prophet who came after Moses and
resembled him in many ways (e.g., bringing a new law and waging war
against his enemies) is
Prophet Muhammad. The Qur’an points to this:
We have sent to you a Messenger as a witness over
you, even as we sent to Pharaoh a Messenger (73:15).
Abd ibn Amr, an ascetic
warned by the Prophet not to neglect sleeping with his wife and to fast only on
alternate days, is reported to have said: “It was common knowledge to the
communities of previous religions that God would send a Prophet to humanity as
a bearer of good tidings and a warner. I personally read in the Torah these
verses about him:
We
have sent you, O Prophet, to humanity as a bearer of good tidings and a warner,
and as a support and refuge for the common folk. You are My servant and
Messenger. I have called you Mutawakkil [the one who puts his trust in God]. He
is not one rude, repelling and angry, and shouting in the streets. He does not
repel evil with evil; instead, he excuses and forgives. God will not make him
die before He guides through him the deviating nation to the right path by
declaring there is no deity but God.”
This report was
confirmed by ‘Abd Allah ibn Salam and Ka‘b al-Akhbar, the most learned scholars
of the Jewish community at the time of the Prophet. They later converted to
Islam.
We also read about
Muhammad in the Psalms of David:
He
will rule from sea to sea and from the river to the ends of the Earth. The
desert tribes will bow before him, and his enemies will lick the dust. The kings
of Tarsish and of distant shores will bring tribute to him; the kings of Sheba
and Seba will present gifts to him. All kings will bow down to him and all
nations will serve him, for he will deliver the needy who cry out, the
afflicted who have no one to help. He will take pity on the weak and the needy,
and save the needy from death. He will rescue them from oppression and violence,
for precious is their blood in his sight. Long may he live! May gold from Sheba
be given to him. May people ever pray for him and bless him all day long. Let
corn abound throughout the land; on the tops of the hills may it sway. May his
name endure for ever; may it continue as long as the sun. All nations will be
blessed through him, and they will call him blessed. (Psalms 72:8-17)
The Gospels
More emphatically and
frequently than any other Prophet, Jesus gave good tidings of Muhammad. In the
Gospel of John, Jesus promises his arrival using several names:
But
I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go
away, the Paraklit will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.
When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and
righteousness and judgment. (John, 16:7-8)
Here, Prophet Muhammad
is referred to as the Paraklit. This Greek word means “the Distinguisher
between Truth and Falsehood” and “one who is much praised.” Christian interpreters
have given it various meanings, such as Counselor (New International Version by
International Bible Society, placed and distributed by Gideon's
International), Helper (American Bible Society), or Comforter
(The Company of the Holy Bible), and claim that it refers to the Holy Spirit.
But they have never been able to establish whether the Holy Spirit came down
after Jesus and did what Jesus said it would do. If the Holy Spirit is Archangel
Gabriel, he came many times to Prophet Muhammad to bring Divine Revelations.
Further, Jesus mentioned and predicted the Paraklit with other names but the
same function, as seen below:
When
Paraklit comes—the Spirit of truth—who comes from the Father, he will testify
about me. (John 15:26)
I
have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the
Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on
his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to
come. He will bring glory to me by taking what is mine and making it known to
you. (John 16:12-14) I will not speak with you much longer, for the Prince of
this world is coming. And I posses nothing of him. (John 14:30)
Who has come after
Jesus other than Prophet Muhammad, as the Comforter who has comforted human
beings against their fear of death, worries of the future, and spiritual
ailments?
As the Helper, who has
helped humanity attain real peace and happiness in both worlds? As the Prince
of the world, who has ruled almost half the world for fourteen centuries and
has become the beloved of billions? As the Spirit of truth, who has testified
to Jesus, brought glory to him by declaring his Prophethood against the Jews’
denial and the Christians’ deification, and restoring his religion to its
pristine purity through the Book revealed to him? What shortcomings do some Christians
attribute to Prophet Muhammad, in contrast to Jesus and other Prophets, that, while many among them believed in him
within a few decades of his death, they persist in denying him?
Maw Lana Jalal al-Din
al-Rumi, a great Sufi saint, expresses in the following stanza the good tidings
of Prophet Muhammad found in the Gospel:
In
the Gospel Mustafa is mentioned with his attributes. In him is the mystery of
all the Prophets; he is the bringer of happiness. The Gospel mentions him with his
external form and features, and also with his personal virtues and Prophetic
qualities.
The Old and New Testaments,
despite the questionable authenticity of their current versions, still contain
references to Prophet Muhammad. I have quoted some of these. If, one day, the
original copies or the least altered copies of the Torah and the Gospel are
discovered, they will contain explicit references to the last Messenger. This
may be deduced from the Traditions that say Christianity will be purified of
its borrowed elements.
