[The following is actually an interesting debate between a Muslim and a Christian; we at kindfather.com have added additional footnotes for more information and clarification, and, Allah-Willing, we shall present this debate in different parts.]

WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS ABOUT MUHAMMAD (PEACE BE UPON HIM) THE PROPHET OF ISLAM

A lecture by Ahmed Deedat

SAY: "DO YOU SEE? WHETHER THIS MESSAGE BE FROM ALLAH (God Almighty), AND YET YOU REJECT IT, AND A WITNESS FROM AMONG THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL¹ BORE WITNESS OF ONE LIKE HIM..."(SURA AHQAF) Holy Qur’an 46:10.

1. This refers to Moses. See Yusuf Ali's commentaries Nos. 4783/4 to this verse.

Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen, The subject of this evening's talk* - "What the BIBLE says about MUHAMMAD (Peace be upon him)" - will no doubt come as a surprise to many of you because the speaker is a Muslim. How does it come about that a Muslim happens to be expounding prophecies from the Jewish and Christian Scriptures?
As a young man, about 30 years ago, I attended a series of religious lectures by a Christian theologian, a certain Rev. Hiten, at the "Theatre Royal", Durban in South Africa.

*This is the text of a lecture delivered by the author in the early 1970's.

Pope or Kissinger?

This Reverend gentleman was expounding Biblical prophecies. He went on to prove that the Christian Bible foretold the rise of Soviet Russia, and the Last Days. At one stage he went to the extent of proving that his Holy Book did not leave even the Pope out of its predictions. He expatiated vigorously in order to convince his audience that the "Beast 666" mentioned in the Book of Revelations the last book of the New Testament was the POPE, who was the Vicar of Christ on earth. It is not befitting for us Muslims to enter into this controversy between the Roman Catholics and the Protestants. By the way, the latest Christian exposition of the "Beast 666" of the Christian Bible is Dr. Henry Kissinger¹. Christian scholars are ingenious and indefatigable in their efforts to prove their case.[1]
Rev. Hiten's lectures led me to ask that if the Bible foretold so many things - not even excluding the "Pope" and "Israel" - then surely it must have something to say about the greatest benefactor of mankind ², the Holy Prophet Muhammad (May the peace of Allah be upon him).

As a youngster I set out to search for an answer. I met priest after priest, attended lectures, and read everything that I could lay my hands relating to the fields of Bible prophecies. Tonight I am going to narrate to you one of these interviews with a dominee³ of the Dutch Reformed Church.

1. Christian exegetes give progressive numerical values by sixes, to the English alphabet and add up to get the total 666. i.e. A=6, B=12, C=18, D=24 and so on. Progression by 6's because the number of the Beast in the Bible is "666". Try it for Dr. Kissinger.

2. The writer has delivered another talk in the City Hall, Durban, on the 10th December 1975 on the subject "Muhammad the Greatest".

3. "Dominee" is the Afrikaans equivalent of priest, parson and predicant.

[The comments in brackets are by kindfather.com][1] Perhaps it is necessary to remind the adherents of Bible that Jesus and his disciples were not English speaking people! In fact the Bible was not translated to English until centuries later; how does such analysis in regard to English Alphabet fit in ancient Biblical Prophecies (Rev. 13:18), is a question that they should answer; yet this is another proof that one of the methods through which distortions have entered the Bible, is through many translations and unauthorized interpretations. In order to comprehend the authenticity of Qur'an and its Divinely Authorized interpretations by the Ahl-Ol-Bait -the Allah Chosen Successors of the final Prophet- we cordially invite you to read the articles: "How has Qur'an been protected from distortions?" and "Ghadir, heart of Qur'an" in this site.]

Lucky Thirteen

I was invited to the Transvaal¹ to deliver a talk on the occasion of Birthday celebration of the Holy Prophet Muhammad. Knowing that in that province of the Republic, the Afrikaans language is widely spoken, even by my own people, I felt that I ought to acquire a smattering of this language so as to feel a little "at home" with the people. I opened the telephone directory and began phoning the Afrikaans-speaking Churches. I indicated my purpose to the priests that I was interested in having a dialogue with them, but they all refused my request with "Plausible" excuses. No.13 was my lucky number. The thirteenth call brought me pleasure and relief. A dominee Van Heerden agreed to meet me at his home on the Saturday afternoon that I was to leave for Transvaal.

He received me on his verandah with a friendly welcome. He said if I did not mind, he would like his father-in-law from the Free State (a 70 year old man) to join us in the discussion. I did not mind. The three of us settled down in the dominee's library.

1. One of the Provinces of the Republic of South Africa.

Why Nothing?

I posed the question: "What does the Bible say about Muhammad?" Without hesitation he answered, "Nothing!" I asked: "Why nothing? According to your interpretation the Bible has so many things to say about the rise of Soviet Russia and about the Last Days and even about the Pope of the Roman Catholics?" He said, "Yes, but there was nothing about Muhammad!" I asked again, "Why nothing? Surely this man Muhammad who had been responsible for the bringing into being a worldwide community of millions of Believers who, on his authority, believe in:

(1) The miraculous birth of Jesus,

(2) That Jesus is the Messiah1, ^[1]

(3) That he gave life to the dead by God's permission, and that he healed those born blind and the lepers by God's permission.

Surely this book (the Bible) must have something to say about this great Leader of men who spoke so well of Jesus and his mother Mary?" (Peace be upon them both).

The old man from the Free State replied. "My son, I have been reading the Bible for the past 50 years, and if there was any mention of him, I would have known it."

1. The word "Messiah" comes from the Arabic and Hebrew word masaha, which means to rub, to massage, to anoint. The religious significance is "the one who is anointed" - priests and kings were anointed in consecration to their offices. Messiah translated Christ does not mean God. Even the heathen Cyrus is called "Christ" in the Bible, (Isaiah 45:1)

[The comments in brackets are by kindfather.com] [1] [The word Messiah is mentioned in the English translation of the Bible; Messiah, according to English encyclopedias and dictionaries, basically means leader, deliverer and savior (perhaps because leaders used to be anointed); those who call themselves Christians have mostly translated it to Christ (apparently the word Christ is a Greek translation used for messiah); those who call themselves Jews, are still anticipating the Messiah! There are many indications in the Prophecies of the current Old Testament -in spite of all distortions- that two Anticipated Prophets after Moses (PBUT), were Promised, and also the current New Testament -in the midst of distortions-gives the Glad Tidings for the Promised Prophet after Jesus (PBUT). Stay with us in this site, as we shall also explore the Bible Testaments for the Promise of the Imam Mahdi's and Jesus's (PBUT) Second Comings; we also invite you to read the articles: "Second Coming of Jesus", "Ascension of Jesus" and "Ascension of Mohammad" in this site.

In addition there exist certain ancient and apparently less distorted Jewish and Christian documents known as the "Dead Sea Scrolls", in which two different "Messiahs" were clearly prophesied; let us first review some facts about the Dead Sea Scrolls themselves; note that these Scrolls , even though written years before the current scriptures in the Bible, yet are not the unchanged and undistorted words of Prophets, and they can only be considered as less distorted sources; let us take the time to implore Allah to hasten the Appearance of the final Successor of the final Prophet, Imam Mahdi (PBUT), who will disclose all the original Scriptures:

In 1947 a group of children stumbled upon the first set of scrolls in a cave on the shores of the Dead Sea. These scrolls were immediately identified as the work of a very devout sect of the Jewish community that lived centuries before the birth of Jesus (PBUH). Hershel Shanks says in his book Understanding the Dead Sea Scrolls: "Such was the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, manuscripts a thousand years older than the oldest known Hebrew texts of the Bible, manuscripts many of which were written a hundred years before the birth of Jesus and at least one of which may have been written almost three hundred years before the journey of Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem" (Understanding the Dead Sea Scrolls, Hershel Shanks, pp. 7-8).

An immediate frantic search ensued through the remaining caves in the region in order to find what other ancient scrolls could be discovered therein. A small group of "international" scholars in Israel were given exclusive access to them and the rest of the world was all but totally barred from gaining even the slightest glimpse of the texts (Prof. Eisenman observes that one of the major stumbling blocks for the publication of the scrolls was that "in the first place, the team was hardly international") . Prof. Robert Eisenman was one of the key players in the drama that finally led to the release of the scrolls. In his book The Dead Sea Scrolls Uncovered we read: "In the spring of 1986, at the end of his stay in Jerusalem, Professor Eisenman went with the British scholar, Philip Davies of the University of Sheffield, to see one of the Israeli officials responsible for this - an intermediary on behalf of the Antiquities Department (now 'Authority') and the International Team and the Scrolls Curator at Israel Museum. They were told in no uncertain terms 'You will not see the Scrolls in your lifetimes'".

This stung them into action, and as a result of this statement, a massive effort was launched and five years later, through a whirlwind of media publicity, absolute access to the scrolls was attained. [[of course one may wonder whether the whole and uncorrupted copies of the Scrolls were released or not! After all it took over forty years for their disclosure!]] Prof. Eisenman eventually received 1800 pictures of the previously unpublished scrolls. The book goes on to describe how "Eisenman was preparing the Facsimile Edition of all unpublished plates. This was scheduled to appear the following spring through E. J. Brill in Leiden, Holland. Ten days, however, before its scheduled publication in April 1991, after pressure was applied by the International Team, the publisher inexplicably withdrew and Hershel Shanks (author of Biblical Archeology Review) and the Biblical Archeology Society to their credit stepped in to fill the breach". However, finally in September 1991, the archives were officially opened and two months later the 2-volume Facsimile Edition was published.

Now let us read what they have said in regard to the two "Messiahs":

In The Dead Sea Scrolls Uncovered, by Robert Eisenman and Michael Wise, we read that the early scrolls spoke of two messiahs, but that later on, the communities of the Jews began to combine them into one messiah As we have suggested, contrary to the well-known 'two-Messiah' theory of early Qumran scholarship, these references to the 'Messiah of Aaron and Israel' in the Damascus Document are singular not plural... and one possible explanation for it is that it is evoking a Messiah with both 'priestly' and 'kingly' implications, like the somewhat similar recitations of Hebrews (The Dead Sea Scrolls Uncovered, Robert Eisenman and Michael Wise, p. 162).

According to the dominant view in the sectarian texts from Qumran, two messiahs were to lead the congregation in the End of Days, one 'priestly', and the other 'lay' (Reclaiming the Dead Sea Scrolls, Lawrence H. Schiffman, pp. 321-322).

For more information in this regard, please also read the article: "Mohammad, the Promise of Torah - II" in this site.]

Not one by name!

I enquired: "According to you, are there not hundreds of prophecies regarding the coming of Jesus in the Old Testament." The dominee interjected: "Not hundreds, but thousands!" I said, "I am not going to dispute the 'thousand and one' prophecies in the Old Testament regarding the coming of Jesus Christ, because the whole Muslim-world has already accepted him without the testimony of any Biblical prophecy. We Muslims have accepted the de facto Jesus on the authority of Muhammad alone, and there are in the world today no less than 900,000,000 ¹ followers of Muhammad who love, respect and revere this great Messenger of God -Jesus Christ-without having the Christians to convince them by means of their Biblical dialectics. Out of the 'thousands' of prophecies referred to, can you please give me just one single prophecy where Jesus is mentioned by name? The term 'Messiah', translated as 'Christ', is not a name but a title. Is there a single Prophecy where it says that the name of the Messiah will be JESUS, and that his mother's name will be MARY, that his supposed father will be JOSEPH THE CARPENTER; that he will be born in the reign of HEROD THE KING, etc. etc.? No! There are no such details! Then how can you conclude that those 'thousand' Prophecies refer to Jesus (Peace be upon him)?"

1. This was first written in 1976.

What is Prophecy?

The dominee replied: "You see, prophecies are word-pictures of something that is going to happen in the future. When that thing actually comes to pass, we see vividly in these prophecies the fulfillment of what had been predicted in the past." I said: "What you actually do is that you deduce, you reason, you put two and two together." He said: "Yes." I said: "If this is what you have to do with a 'thousand' prophecies to justify your claim with regards to the genuineness of Jesus, why should we not adopt the very same system for Muhammad?"¹ The dominee agreed that it was a fair proposition, a reasonable way of dealing with the problem.

I asked him to open up Deuteronomy, chapter 18, verse 18, which he did. I read from memory the verse in Afrikaans, because this was my purpose in having a little practice with the language of the ruling race in South Africa.²

'N PROFEET SAL EK VIR HULLE VERWEK UIT DIE MIDDE VAN HULLE BROERS, SOOS JY IS, EN EK SAL MY WOORDE IN SY MOND LE, EN HY SY SAL AAN HULLE SE ALLE WAT EK HOM BEVEEL. Deut.18: 18.

The English translation reads as follows:

"I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and I will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him."

(HOLY BIBLE) Deuteronomy 18:18.

1. Muhammad is mentioned by name in the Song of Solomon 5:16. The Hebrew word used there is Muhammaddim. The end letters IM is plural of respect majesty and grandeur. Minus "im" the name would be Muhammad translated as "altogether lovely" in the Authorized Version of the Bible or 'The Praised One' 'the one worthy of Praise' i.e. MUHAMMAD! (P.B.U.H)

2. If this booklet is translated into any language, please change the Afrikaans words into the local dialect; and do not try a free hand translation of the Biblical quotation. Obtain a Bible in the language in which translation is being made and transcribe exactly as the words occur in that Bible.

Prophet Like Moses

Having recited the verse in Afrikaans, I apologized for my uncertain pronunciation, the dominee assured me that I was doing fine. I enquired: "To whom does this prophecy refer?" Without the slightest hesitation he answered: "JESUS!" I asked: "Why Jesus?... his name is not mentioned here." The dominee replied: "Since prophecies are word-pictures of something that is going to happen in the future, we find that the wordings of this verse adequately describe him. You see the most important words of this prophecy are 'SOOS JY IS' (like unto thee), - LIKE YOU - like Moses, and Jesus is like Moses. I questioned: "In which way is Jesus like Moses?" The answer was: "In the first place Moses was a JEW and Jesus was also a JEW; secondly, Moses was a PROPHET and Jesus was also a PROPHET - therefore Jesus is like Moses and that is exactly what God had foretold Moses - "SOOS JY IS". "Can you think of any other similarities between Moses and Jesus?" I asked. The dominee said that he could not think of any. I replied: "If these are the only two criteria for discovering a candidate for this prophecy of Deuteronomy 18:18, then in that case the criteria could fit any one of the following Biblical personages after Moses:- Solomon, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Malachi, John the Baptist etc., because they were also ALL "Jews" as well as "Prophets". Why should we not apply this prophecy to any one of these prophets, and why only to Jesus? Why should we make fish of one and fowl of another?" The dominee had no reply. I continued: "You see, my conclusions are that Jesus is most unlike Moses, and if I am wrong I would like you to correct me."

Three Unlikes

So saying, I reasoned with him:

"In the FIRST place Jesus is not like Moses, because, according to You - 'JESUS IS A GOD', but Moses is not God. Is this true?" He said: "Yes." I said: "Therefore, Jesus is not like Moses!

"SECONDLY, according to You - 'JESUS DIED FOR THE SINS OF THE WORLD', but Moses did not have to die for the sins of the world. Is this true?" He again said: "Yes." I said: "Therefore Jesus is not like Moses!"

"THIRDLY, according to You - 'JESUS WENT TO HELL FOR THREE DAYS', but Moses did not have to go there. Is this true?" He answered meekly: "Y-e-s." I concluded: "Therefore Jesus is not like Moses!"

"But dominee," I continued: "these are not hard facts, solid facts, they are mere matters of belief over which the little ones can stumble and fall. Let us discuss something very simple, very easy that if your little ones are called in to hear the discussion, would have no difficulty in following it, shall we?" The dominee was quite happy at the suggestion.

To be continued…