Muslims try to reinterpret Biblical scripture to prove Muhammed was prophesied in the Bible. The key verse used is Deuteronomy 18:18 and John 14:26, 16:7. By linking this two a few obscure Quranic verses our Muslim friends seems to feel this is sufficient to uphold Mohammad as a true Biblical prophet.
Qur’an 46:10 Say: Have you considered if it is from Allah, and you disbelieve in it, and a witness from among the Children of Israel has borne witness of one like him, so he believed, while you are big with pride? Surely Allah doesn't guide the wrongdoing people.
Qur'an 3:81 And [recall, O People of the Scripture], when Allah took the covenant of the prophets, [saying], "Whatever I give you of the Scripture and wisdom and then there comes to you an Apostle confirming what is with you, you [must] believe in him and support him." [Allah] said, "Have you acknowledged and taken upon that My commitment?" They said, "We have acknowledged it." He said, "Then bear witness, and I am with you among the witnesses."
This is what I call Islamic Gymnastics – desperately seek the gold affirmation in the Bible but forever falling short. For example the Islamic conclusion is the coming of the Holy Spirit is no other than the man Muhammad who is like Moses and will be with the Christian faith forever!!!
However before we enter any debate regarding the Islamic view of Muhammad predicted in the Bible our Muslim friends need to address the Quran rendering of Mohammad as a false prophet. This is something our Muslim friends simply avoid and refuse to answer.
The name Mohammad is only used four times in the Quran, one of these occurrence is used to specifically warning Mohammad not to make any false sayings about US / Allah (عَلَيْنَا = against Us).
So let us explore what the Quran teaches about false prophets. Surah 69:44-46
And if Muhammad had made up about Us some [false] sayings, We would have seized him by the right hand; Then We would have cut (sever) from him the aorta.
Take note of the use of US in this passage – This is plural suggesting more than one allah or possibility Trinity
To make sure I am not miss representing the Islamic faith I confirm the understanding of the passage from one of the greatest Muslim commentaries Tafsir Jalalayn:
And had he namely the Prophet s fabricated any lies against Us by communicating from Us that which We have not said, We would have assuredly seized him We would have exacted vengeance against him as punishment by the Right Hand by Our strength and power; Then We would have assuredly severed his life-artery the aorta of the heart a vein that connects with it and which if severed results in that person’s death.
So this clears up any accusation that I have miss-interpreted the verse, taken it out of context or reconstructed it to suit my argument. In addition we are not taking the passage out of context as the surrounding verse are all about the authority of the Quran.
So how did Mohammad die? We find our answers in the Hadiths and bibliographies of Mohammad. Interesting thought though is our Muslim friends love comparing biblical figures with Mohammad as a means to support their various traditions of faith. There is no prediction of Mohammad’s death in the Quran, even with Mohammad’s status as the great prophet he himself did not foresee his death. While Jesus predicted his death six times, that is 33% more times than Mohammad’s name is mentioned in the Quran. (Mathew 16:21-28, 17:22-23, Mark 8:31-9:1, 9:30-32, Luke 9:21-27, 9:44-45) Please note this is over and above the prophecies in the Old Testament. Muhammad makes no prediction of his death. So how did he die? We the narrative in a number of Hadiths and Sira’s.
In summary Mohammad while on a raid had killed the Husband, Father and Uncle of a Jewess woman called Zaynab d. al-Harith. She then invited Mohammad and his companions for a meal which she had prepared and added poison to the lamb. While eating the meal Mohammad had a revelation that the Lamb had been poisoned and told the companions to stop eating. He then enquired from Zaynab d. al-Harith why she had done this. Her reply was If you were a prophet, it would not harm you; but if you were a king, I should rid the people of you. The effects of the poison took toll on Mohammad for approximately a three year period be for he finally died, during which time he said on a number of occasions the effects of the poison was cutting his aorta.
(HADITH REFERENCES :- Sahih Al-Bukhari Hadith (Hadith 5.713), Sunan of Abu-Dawood Hadith (Hadith 2135), Sunan of Abu-Dawood Hadith (Hadith 2134), Sahih Al-Bukhari Hadith (Hadith 7.647), Sahih al-Bukhari 2588, Sahih al-Bukhari 2617, Sahih al-Bukhari 2797, Sahih al-Bukhari 4428, Sahih Muslim 5430, Sunan Abu Dawud 4498, Sunan Abu Dawud 4449, Sunan Ibn Majah 1622.)
(SIRA REFERENCES :- Ibn Ishaq, p. 516, Ibn Ishaq, p. 516, At-Tabari, Volume 8, p. 124, Ibn Sa’d, Volume 2, pp. 251-252)
From this one can only wonder why Allah did not warn Mohammad before he ate the poisoned meat, and secondly who kills a person’s husband one day and the next evening you go and have dinner prepared by the wife of the massacred family.
Thirdly note must be made that when one reads the Quran it is apparent that Allah gives Mahammad his every desire, for example he can have more than the number of prescribed wife’s, he may marry his divorced adopted sons wife and so on.
One then would expect Allah to honour the final prophet his greatest desire, which was to die in battle a hero. (Sahih al-Bukhari 2797). But it is apparent from the Hadiths that this is not the case and we are confronted with a fighting revelation from the authentic and most revered Islamic traditions how Mohammad died. So why did Allah allow Mohammad to die in such a painful manner?
The Quran gives us the answer in Surah 69:44-46, And if he (Muhammad) had forged a false saying concerning Us We surely should have seized him by his right hand (or with power and might), and then certainly should have cut off his life artery (Aorta).
From the Tafsir we see Allah is clear that if Muhammad were make false revelations Allah Muhammad would kill Mohammad in a traumatic death by having his life artery severed. The following Tafsir confirm this interpretation that if Mouhammad had invented, false sayings, lied or attributed anything concerning Us (Allah) which was not revealed to Mohammad, Allah would most assuredly take revenge against him. And cut off Mohammad’s life artery. (Tafsir Ibn Abbas, Tafsir Jalalayn, Tafsir Ibn Kathir†This has also been said by ‘Ikrimah, Sa’id bin Jubayr, Al-Hakim, Qatadah, Ad-Dahhak, Muslim Al-Batin and Abu Sakhr Humayd bin Ziyad).
The understanding of this has huge theological implications on the Islamic faith and something that one would thought would be addressed by the Islamic scholars but once again this seems to be hidden away in the typical Islamic verbal Gymnastics rather than deal with the issue.
From a Christian perspective we understand you reap what you sow as taught by Jesus in Mathew 26:52, although the Jewish women was most properly refereeing to Deuteronomy 18:20 in prayer to Yahweh seeking answers to the persecution leaved at the Jew of the time by Mohammad. Interesting theological point here is that our Muslim friends use Deuteronomy 18:18 as proof of Mohammad’s ministry been prophesied in the Bible.
By doing this our Muslim friends are confirm these scripture to be authentic and un-corrupted and thus in comparison to the Quran’s rendering of Surah 69:44-46 there is a striking parallel between the two passages. “The God of creation will kill any person who claims to be a prophet and is falsely testifies against Him.†The Quran offer a bit more detail in that it describes the method of the death of a false prophet. What was Mohammad’s exact words on the Sahih al-Bukhari, Suna Abu Dawud, At Tabari confirms that Mohammad said: -
“I feel my aorta is been cut from the poisonâ€,
“This is the time when it has cut of my aortaâ€
“At this very moment I fell my aorta been severedâ€
Off all the hundreds of ways a person could die, Allah killed Mohammad for been a false prophet. His What I find even more fascinating is that Mohammad of all people knew the Quran and recited it in full yearly to the angle Gabriel, please not this recitation is not only one dialect but in all seven different dialects – therefore at no stage can any Muslim claim that Mohammad had no understanding or knowledge of Surah 69-44-46. Yet on his death bed Mohammed tell those around him “MY AORTA IS BEEN CUT !†= Hey Guys, I am about to die a death of a false prophet, you gullible idiotic fools for believing on Allah.
Let us back this up, to show how powerful the One True God of All Creation is, and that his decrees will be fulfilled as we read in ibn Sa’d page 252-253 :- It is narrated that Bishr ibn al-Bara could taste the poison when he ate the meat. No one says anything and everyone happily eats, waiting for Mohammad to give a revelation. I suggest that this is not because of any other reason but that the true God of Creation had had enough and what He wills happens and His will was to expose the false prophet called Mohammad.
Thus one has two option to accept the Islamic traditions, history and commands of the Quran that Mohammad is a false prophet or come up with a reasonable explanation of why Mohammad died as a false prophet and we should take his revelations in the Quran seriously. Noting at this point Surah 5:46 And We ordained for them ………… And whoever does not judge by what Allah has revealed - then it is those who are the wrongdoers.
Please take note nothing here has come from a Christian perspective this is all based on Islamic Tradition, History Biographies and the Quran, in other word this is the Islamic standard. Therefore is Mohammad predicted in the Bible – yes he is noted as the Anti-Christ and False Prophet (1 John2:23 (2 Thessalonians 2:3-4, Revelation 13:3-5, 1 John 2:18)
When discussing this with my Muslim friends their response is firstly we do not understand the text as we as westerners and Christians do not speak or understand Arabic, and the Quran can only be properly understood in pure Arabic.
Typically I ask well do you understand Arabic and in most cases the average Muslim does not, they may be able to recite the Quran but have little or no knowledge of Arabic themselves. However let us be fair and accept this argument for a moment. This on the face of the matter then excluded millions of Muslims who have no understand of the text. Secondly all the Islamic scholar who have translated the Quran into various languages so their followers can have understanding have fabricated or falsely translated the pure Arabic thus purposefully leading millions of Muslims astray. Thirdly all the engineers and whiz kids of the world who write translation programs and tools for example google have also purposefully ensured that the result of using their product if false and in error of the truth. In other word Islam is saying no one understands their faith unless you are able to read and understand Arabic. Wow how observed can one get.
The second objection our Muslim friends come up with is we have no comprehension or understanding of the term IF as used in Surah 69:44 “And IF he (Mohammad)…….†By this the Islamic view is If Mohammad had of invented, false sayings, lied or attributed anything concerning Allah than which was not revealed, Allah would have punished him immediately. Since the Allah allowed the revelation of the Quran to be completed Mohammad is not guilty of inventing any surah in the Quran.
The theological implication of accepting this is an unfathomable, in that the implication is each time we humans sin Allah will immediately and without any delay implement judgment on us. There is no time to do any good deed to try and balance the scales our Muslim friends desperately battel daily doing, no time for prayer, no time for forgiveness and no time for mercy. Therefore the All merciful Allah then is non-existent and no more. Thus the Quran in its self is false in that it teaches Allah to be a merciful god.
In addition our Muslim friends add that since there is a time period of approximately three years between Mohammad been poisoned to his death means that his aorta was not ever severed as if one were to cut Mohammad’s aorta death would occur inside five minutes and this is medically attested. Since this did not happen Mohammad is a true prophet of Allah.
In response to this we must carefully consider two points, is the god of All Creation all powerful or not and does the God of All Creation show grace and mercy to His creation. Not only do both the Bible and the Quran confirm Yahweh and Allah to be all-powerful all-knowing is goes on to say that we as humans will never understand the ways of the One True God not to mention His controlling hand over his creation. Both the Quran and the Bible teach the Yahweh and Allah are patience’s, kind and merciful. The bible goes a step further to say were sin abounds Yahweh grace abound more. (Romans 5:20).
Note must also be made that Bishr ibn al-Bara' ibn Ma'rur al-Ansari died immediately at the table after eating the poisoned meat so did the dog they feed before he could move his forelegs. The implication here is that the death from the poison having ingested sufficient amount was rather quick.
A more plausible solution to the theological nightmare our Muslim friends create for themselves, is that the approximate three year period of suffering Mohammad underwent was his time of grace and mercy. Allah was calling him to set the record straight, was his time to balance the scales, this was his time to ask forgiveness yet he never does and as time wore on the effects of the poison took deeper and deeper hold and bit by bit severed his life vein over a three period in a manner only an truly all mighty God can do.
The most plausible argument I have heard is that the term “server his aorta†is a poetic phrase and cannot be taken literally. Well then if that is the case what is the meaning of the phrase “server his aorta†I asked. To this the reply was simply to die. Ok so we accept this poetic phrase to mean to die and we substitute it into both the Quran and the Hadith and we reprocess the whole discussion to concluded Muhammad die a death on Islamic standard as a false prophet.
The fact remains Mohammad said the effects of the poison was like having his aorta cut. This is not a statement people generally make or even understand what it feels like. Something like it feels like my chest is been crushed would be more reasonable. However this is not the case and clearly the Hadiths show Mahammad understood clearly what he was saying.
The Question Is – with all the Islamic gymnastic applied to their own and other text why is something so simple missed. Well it proves Mohammad to have been a master mind in politics and manipulation of an entire nation. Islamic leader ever since have followed Mohammad’s example and continued to milk the cow for all its worth at the expense of millions of souls on a straight path to hell.
