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Reason 8 of 10

Prophecy points to Jesus. The "Muhammad prophecies" do not.

The Hebrew prophets foretold a suffering servant pierced for our sins, a ruler from Bethlehem and a Messiah cut off before the Temple fell. Jesus fits. The texts Muslims cite for Muhammad, Deuteronomy 18 and the Paraclete of John 14-16, say something else when you read them whole.

Swipe this reason: 5 cards

Fulfilled in Jesus

Isaiah 53 describes a servant despised, pierced for our transgressions, laying down his life as an offering for sin and then prolonging his days. Psalm 22 describes hands and feet pierced and garments divided by lot. Micah names Bethlehem. Daniel says the Messiah will be cut off before the city and sanctuary are destroyed, which happened in AD 70. Copies of Isaiah and the Psalms from before Jesus' birth survive among the Dead Sea Scrolls.

3He was despised and rejected by men, a man of suffering and acquainted with disease. He was despised as one from whom men hide their face; and we didn’t respect him. 4Surely he has borne our sickness and carried our suffering; yet we considered him plagued, struck by God, and afflicted. 5But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought our peace was on him; and by his wounds we are healed. 6All we like sheep have gone astray. Everyone has turned to his own way; and Yahweh has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

Isaiah 53:3-6 (WEB) · context

10Yet it pleased Yahweh to bruise him. He has caused him to suffer. When you make his soul an offering for sin, he will see his offspring. He will prolong his days and Yahweh’s pleasure will prosper in his hand. 11After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light and be satisfied. My righteous servant will justify many by the knowledge of himself; and he will bear their iniquities. 12Therefore I will give him a portion with the great. He will divide the plunder with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was counted with the transgressors; yet he bore the sins of many and made intercession for the transgressors.

Isaiah 53:10-12 (WEB) · context

16For dogs have surrounded me. A company of evildoers have enclosed me. They have pierced my hands and feet. 17I can count all of my bones. They look and stare at me. 18They divide my garments among them. They cast lots for my clothing.

Psalms 22:16-18 (WEB) · context

2But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, being small among the clans of Judah, out of you one will come out to me who is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings out are from of old, from ancient times.

Micah 5:2 (WEB) · context

26After the sixty-two weeks the Anointed One will be cut off, and will have nothing. The people of the prince who come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. Its end will be with a flood, and war will be even to the end. Desolations are determined.

Daniel 9:26 (WEB) · context

10I will pour on David’s house and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and of supplication. They will look to me whom they have pierced; and they shall mourn for him as one mourns for his only son, and will grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for his firstborn.

Zechariah 12:10 (WEB) · context

Deuteronomy 18: a prophet like Moses

Muslims read from among their brothers as the Arabs, Ishmael's descendants. In Deuteronomy, your brothers means fellow Israelites: the king must be from among your brothers, not a foreigner. The same book ends by saying the prophet like Moses is one who knew God face to face and did signs and wonders; Peter applies the promise to Jesus. Deuteronomy also gives the test: a prophet who speaks in the name of other gods, or whose words fail, is not from God.

15Yahweh your God will raise up to you a prophet from among you, of your brothers, like me. You shall listen to him. 16This is according to all that you desired of Yahweh your God in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying, “Let me not hear again Yahweh my God’s voice, neither let me see this great fire any more, that I not die.” 17Yahweh said to me, “They have well said that which they have spoken. 18I will raise them up a prophet from among their brothers, like you. I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I shall command him. 19It shall happen, that whoever will not listen to my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him. 20But the prophet who speaks a word presumptuously 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.” 21You may say in your heart, “How shall we know the word which Yahweh has not spoken?” 22When a prophet speaks in Yahweh’s name, if the thing doesn’t follow, nor happen, that is the thing which Yahweh has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You shall not be afraid of him.

Deuteronomy 18:15-22 (WEB) · context

15you shall surely set him whom Yahweh your God chooses as king over yourselves. You shall set as king over you one from among your brothers. You may not put a foreigner over you, who is not your brother.

Deuteronomy 17:15 (WEB) · context

10Since then, there has not arisen a prophet in Israel like Moses, whom Yahweh knew face to face, 11in all the signs and the wonders which Yahweh sent him to do in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh, and to all his servants, and to all his land, 12and in all the mighty hand, and in all the awesome deeds, which Moses did in the sight of all Israel.

Deuteronomy 34:10-12 (WEB) · context

20and that he may send Christ Jesus, who was ordained for you before, 21whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, which God spoke long ago by the mouth of his holy prophets. 22For Moses indeed said to the fathers, ‘The Lord God will raise up a prophet for you from among your brothers, like me. You shall listen to him in all things whatever he says to you.

Acts 3:20-22 (WEB) · context

John 14-16: the Helper

Many Muslims identify Muhammad with the Helper (Greek parakletos) Jesus promised. Jesus himself identifies the Helper: the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot see, who was already with the disciples and would be in them, who would remain forever, and who would glorify Jesus. The disciples were told to wait in Jerusalem for him, and he came at Pentecost, weeks later, not six centuries later.

The claim that the original word was periklytos (praised one, ahmad) has no manuscript support: every Greek manuscript of John reads parakletos.

16I will pray to the Father, and he will give you another Counselor, that he may be with you forever: 17the Spirit of truth, whom the world can’t receive, for it doesn’t see him and doesn’t know him. You know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.

John 14:16-17 (WEB) · context

26But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things, and will remind you of all that I said to you.

John 14:26 (WEB) · context

26“When the Counselor has come, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will testify about me.

John 15:26 (WEB) · context

7Nevertheless I tell you the truth: It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I don’t go away, the Counselor won’t come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.

John 16:7 (WEB) · context

13However, when he, the Spirit of truth, has come, he will guide you into all truth, for he will not speak from himself; but whatever he hears, he will speak. He will declare to you things that are coming. 14He will glorify me, for he will take from what is mine and will declare it to you.

John 16:13-14 (WEB) · context

4Being assembled together with them, he commanded them, “Don’t depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which you heard from me. 5For John indeed baptized in water, but you will be baptized in the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”

Acts 1:4-5 (WEB) · context

1Now when the day of Pentecost had come, they were all with one accord in one place. 2Suddenly there came from the sky a sound like the rushing of a mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. 3Tongues like fire appeared and were distributed to them, and one sat on each of them. 4They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other languages, as the Spirit gave them the ability to speak.

Acts 2:1-4 (WEB) · context

What the Quran claims

The Quran says the unlettered Prophet is described in the Torah and the Gospel the Jews and Christians had, and that Jesus announced a messenger whose name is the Praised One. No passage in either text, in any manuscript, names him.

ٱلَّذِينَ يَتَّبِعُونَ ٱلرَّسُولَ ٱلنَّبِىَّ ٱلْأُمِّىَّ ٱلَّذِى يَجِدُونَهُۥ مَكْتُوبًا عِندَهُمْ فِى ٱلتَّوْرَىٰةِ وَٱلْإِنجِيلِ يَأْمُرُهُم بِٱلْمَعْرُوفِ وَيَنْهَىٰهُمْ عَنِ ٱلْمُنكَرِ وَيُحِلُّ لَهُمُ ٱلطَّيِّبَٰتِ وَيُحَرِّمُ عَلَيْهِمُ ٱلْخَبَٰٓئِثَ وَيَضَعُ عَنْهُمْ إِصْرَهُمْ وَٱلْأَغْلَٰلَ ٱلَّتِى كَانَتْ عَلَيْهِمْ فَٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ بِهِۦ وَعَزَّرُوهُ وَنَصَرُوهُ وَٱتَّبَعُوا۟ ٱلنُّورَ ٱلَّذِىٓ أُنزِلَ مَعَهُۥٓ أُو۟لَٰٓئِكَ هُمُ ٱلْمُفْلِحُونَ 157

157Those who follow the messenger, the Prophet who can neither read nor write, whom they will find described in the Torah and the Gospel (which are) with them. He will enjoin on them that which is right and forbid them that which is wrong. He will make lawful for them all good things and prohibit for them only the foul; and he will relieve them of their burden and the fetters that they used to wear. Then those who believe in him, and honour him, and help him, and follow the light which is sent down with him: they are the successful.

Quran 7:157 (Pickthall) · context

وَإِذْ قَالَ عِيسَى ٱبْنُ مَرْيَمَ يَٰبَنِىٓ إِسْرَٰٓءِيلَ إِنِّى رَسُولُ ٱللَّهِ إِلَيْكُم مُّصَدِّقًا لِّمَا بَيْنَ يَدَىَّ مِنَ ٱلتَّوْرَىٰةِ وَمُبَشِّرًۢا بِرَسُولٍ يَأْتِى مِنۢ بَعْدِى ٱسْمُهُۥٓ أَحْمَدُ فَلَمَّا جَآءَهُم بِٱلْبَيِّنَٰتِ قَالُوا۟ هَٰذَا سِحْرٌ مُّبِينٌ 6

6And when Jesus son of Mary said: O Children of Israel! Lo! I am the messenger of Allah unto you, confirming that which was (revealed) before me in the Torah, and bringing good tidings of a messenger who cometh after me, whose name is the Praised One. Yet when he hath come unto them with clear proofs, they say: This is mere magic.

Quran 61:6 (Pickthall) · context

What Muslims answer

Muslims also cite Song of Songs 5:16 (Hebrew machmadim, read as Muhammad), Isaiah 42 and Isaiah 21, and argue that Jews and Christians removed explicit prophecies.

Why that answer fails

Machmadim is a common Hebrew adjective (lovely, desirable) used of things as well as people. Isaiah 42's servant is Israel's servant who brings justice to the nations, quoted of Jesus in Matthew 12. And the removal theory meets the manuscript wall again: the texts are older than Islam.

Where scholars disagree

  • Jewish interpreters read Isaiah 53 mainly of Israel; the Christian reading and the earliest Jewish messianic readings (Targum Jonathan on Isaiah 52:13) are discussed on our sister site JewTok.

Jesus, the way

Sources

  1. Earliest source Isaiah, Psalms, Micah, Daniel, Zechariah, Deuteronomy; John 14-16; Acts 1-3 (World English Bible).
  2. Great Isaiah Scroll (1QIsa-a); Psalms scrolls from Qumran (e.g. 5/6HevPs).
  3. Nestle-Aland, Novum Testamentum Graece, 28th ed., apparatus at John 14:16, 14:26, 15:26, 16:7 (no periklytos variant).
  4. The Quran, Pickthall translation: 7:157, 61:6.

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MuslimTok checks what Islam claims about Jesus, the Bible and the Quran against the sources, word for word, and shows why Jesus is the way, the truth and the life.

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