Jesus' Prophecy about Muhammad (s.a.w.)
Compiled by Engineer Afsaneh Cooper
Holy Qur`an:
(LXI:6) "And when Jesus son of Mary said: O Children of Israel! Surely I am the apostle of Allah to you, verifying that which was (revealed) before me of the Torah, and giving the good tidings of an Apostle who will come after me, whose name is Ahmad..."
(VII: 157) "Those who follow the Apostle - Prophet the Ummi (unlettered) whom they find ordained for them in the Torah and the Evangel(the book of Jesus), he enjoins them good and forbids them evil..."
The Gospel of Jesus (a.s.) brought into sharper focus the identity of the one who would fulfil the promise to make the line of Ishmael (a.s.) a great nation. In the Gospel of John - a New Testament book which is not the Gospel of Jesus (a.s.) and which may be considered as representing only in general terms portions of his teachings, Christ informs his close companions that his work among them was drawing to conclusion, but God would send someone else after a time to carry forward the prophetic movement. This someone, carry forward the prophetic movement. This someone, however, would be the last of the prophets.
The following passages of the New Testament lend further proof to the Prophethood of Muhammad (s.a.w.):
John (1: 19-21, 25) "And this is the record of John (the Baptist) when the Jews sent priests and levites from Jerusalem to ask him, who art thou?
And he confessed, and denied not; but confessed I am not the Christ.
And they asked him, what then? Art thow Elias? And he saith I am not. Art thou That Prophet? And he answered, No.
And They asked him, and said unto him, why baptizest thou then, if thou be not that Christ, nor Elias, neither That Prophet."
John (14: 15, 16, 26, 30) "If ye love me, keep my commandments.
And I wiIl pray the Father and He shall give you another comforter, that he may abide with you forever.
But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.
Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me."
John (15: 26) "But when the Comforter is come whom I shall send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me."
John (16: 7-14) "Nevertheless I tell you the truth; it is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you.
And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgement:
of sin, because they believe not on me;
of righteouseness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more;
of judgement because the prince of this world is judged.
I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye connot bear them now.
Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.
He shall glorify me: for he shall recieve of mine, and shalt shew it unto you."
A careful study of these passages brings to light the following facts:
1) The prophet after Jesus would be: God's Elect (Mustafa)
2) Inhabitant of the villages of Prince Kedar son of Ishmael, from Arabia.
3) His religion will be known as Shilloh that is peace or Islam.
4) His light will shine from Mount Faran in Mecca.
5) The sceptre of Judah will pass on to him.
6) God will put His words in his mouth.
7) He shall not fail
8) Jesus Christ (a.s.) prophesies the coming of a Comforter after him.
9) He shall be known as Ahmad, Comforter, or Advocate.
10) The coming of the Comforter depends on Christ's departure.
11) He is sent by Almighty Allah.
12) He will teach everything.
13) He will draw attention towards what the Christ had foretold.
14) He will testify and glorify Christ.
15) He will not speak by himself but what he divinely bears.
16) He will foretell future events16.
17) The world will follow his religion.
18) He will stay forever.
In view of these glaring facts, if we cast a glimpse at the life of Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w.) we will discover the amazing truth that these points perfectly tally with his mission and confirm beyond doubt that he is the Comforter promised by Jesus.
The terms "Comforter" or "Advocate" are the translation of the Greek word "paracletus". These terms are the titles of Prophet Muhammad:
Comforter = "Rahmat - ul - Lil Alamin" in Arabic, which means the comforter of this world and the next. Another synonym for "Comforter" is "Advocate"
Advocate = "Shafi` - ul - Muznibin" in Arabic, which means advocate of sinners.
The translators made a change when they inserted the words 'which is the Holy Ghost' after the word Comforter. In John (14: 26) 'to pneuma to agion' = 'The spirit the holy' is translated 'which is the Holy Ghost'. Refer to references (6) and (7) to check it. They might have changed the Greek word "pericletus" to "paracletus" in the Greek New Testament. The difference between these two Greek words is the letters 'e' = E and 'a' = A which can easily be tampered. If you refer to references (8), (9), (10), (11) you will notice that the true word is "pericletus".
Pericletus = "Ahmad" in Arabic or Hebrew, from the root H.M.D. which means the most praiseworthy of those who praise Allah. This is the celestial name of the prophet Muhammad (s.a.w.). Allah, the Ever-Existing, the All-powerful, 360,000 years before He created the creation, created from His divine light a sacred light. That light upon light praised Allah before and during the creation of heaven and the heavenly and earth and earthly. The inhabitants of the heavens named that light Ahmad. As his praise of Allah is greater than the praise of all that is created, he is called "ahmad - ul - hamidin", the greatest of givers of praise. Ahmad is the name which he is mentioned in the Gospel and in the Qur'an (61: 6). Refer to the above section.
Regarding the word "Comforter" the following facts should be considered. This makes it clear that
"Comforter" can not be "the Holy Ghost":
1) We do not know the actual word spoken by Jesus, but in the early period of Christian history there were a number of Christians who had both the Hebrew and the Greek Bibles before them. In this period we find a few saints who claimed to be the promised Comforter. Some believed in them and some did not. But no one ever said that the promised comforter could not be a man: for he is the Holy Ghost.
2) If we accept the Holy Ghost to be the promised comforter then we will have to conclude that the Holy Ghost which is claimed to be one of the Trinity did not then exist.
3) "Another Comforter" would mean that there were a number of Holy Ghosts and another Holy Ghost was promised who will be sent to this world by Jesus.
4) Any serious textual criticism begins with a search for variations. Here it would seem that in all the known
manuscripts of John's Gospel, the only variation likely to change the meaning of the sentence is in passage John (14: 26) of the famous Palimpsest version written in Syriac12. Here it is not the Holy Spirit that is mentioned, but quite simply the Spirit. Did the scribe merely miss out a word or, knowing full well that the text he was to copy claimed to make the Holy Spirit hear and speak, did he perhaps lack the audacity to write something that seemed absurd to him? Apart from this observation there is little need to labour the other variations, they are grammatical and do not change the general meaning. The important thing is that what has been demonstrated here with regard to the exact meaning of the verbs 'to hear' and 'to speak' should apply to all the other manuscripts of John's Gospel, as is indeed the case.
The verb 'to hear' in the translation is the Greek verb 'akouo' meaning 'to perceive sounds'. It has, for example, given us the word 'acoustics', the science of sounds.
The verb 'to speak' in the translation is the Greek verb 'laleo' which has the general meaning of 'to emit sounds' and the specific meaning of 'to speak'. This verb occures very frequently in the Greek text of the Gospels. It designates a solemn declaration made by Jesus during His preachings. It therefore becomes clear that the communication to man which He here proclaims does not in any way consist of a statement inspired by the agency of the Holy Spirit. It has a very obvious material character moreover, which comes from the idea of the emission of sounds conveyed by the Greek word that defines it.
The two Greek verbs 'akouo' and 'laleo' therefore define concrete actions which can only be applied to a being with hearing and speech organs. It is consequently impossible to apply them to the Holy Spirit.
For this reason, the text of this passage from John's Gospel, as handed down to us in Greek manuscripts, is quite incomprehensible if one takes it as a whole, including the words 'Holy Spirit' in passage John (14: 26) "But the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name" etc. It is the only passage in John's Gospel that identifies the Paraclete with the Holy Spirit.
If the words 'Holy Spirit' (to pneuma to agion) are omitted from the passage, the complete text of John then conveys a meaning which is perfectly clear. It is confirmed moreover, by another text from the same evangelist, the First Letter, where John uses the same word 'Paraclete' simply to mean Jesus, the intercessor at God's side13 . According to John, when Jesus says (John 14: 16): "And I will pray the Father, and he will give you another Paraclete", what He is saying is that 'another' intercessor will be sent to man, as He Himself was at God's side on man's behalf during his earthly life.
According to the rules of logic therefore, one is brought to see in John's Paraclete a human being like Jesus, possessing the faculties of hearing and speech formally implied in John's Greek text. Jesus therefore predicts that God will later send a human being to Earth to take up the role defined by John, i.e. to be a prophet who hears God's word and repeats his message to man. This is the logical interpretation of John's texts arrived at if one attributes to the words their proper meaning.
The presence of the term 'Holy Spirit' in today's text could easily have come from a later addition made quite deliberately. It may have been intended to change the original meaning which predicted the advent of a prophet subsequent to Jesus and was therefore in contradiction with the teachings of the Christian churches at the time of their formation; these teachings maintained that Jesus was the last of the prophets14.