Muhammad in the Bible? Part III

Part Three: The True Prophecies:
 
Consider the following passages drawn from the New Testament:

Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? (Matthew 7:15-16)

Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake. And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. And many false prophets shall arise, and shall deceive many. (Matthew 24:9-11)

And no marvel, for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works. (2 Corinthians 11:14-15)

Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their conscience seared with a hot iron. (1 Timothy 4:1-2)

For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. (2 Timothy 4:3-4)

These verses need not be applied solely to Muhammad. Yet, without a doubt, Muhammad is a fulfillment of many New Testament prophecies. First, Jesus said that false prophets come in sheep’s clothing, but are actually ravening wolves. Muhammad fits this criterion better than anyone else in history. He convinced his followers that he was the greatest moral example in history, yet he murdered countless people, took part in the slave trade, allowed husbands to beat their wives, allowed his men to have sex with their female slaves, had at least nine wives at one time, admittedly proclaimed verses from Satan, and had sex with a nine-year-old girl. ^[19] If Muhammad doesn’t fulfill Jesus’ prophecy, then who does?

Next, Jesus said that false prophets would arise, and that they would deceive many. There are currently more than a billion Muslims in the world, and Islam is one of the world’s fastest growing religions. This means that Muhammad is the greatest false prophet of all time, and the most obvious fulfillment of Jesus’ prophecy.

Third, the Apostle Paul said that Satan masquerades as an angel of light. If Muhammad had been aware of this, perhaps he would have trusted his first instinct when a spirit claiming to be Gabriel suddenly appeared to him. (Muhammad’s first impression of his revelations was that he was under demonic attack. ^[20]) This is a clear fulfillment of Paul’s words.

Fourth, Paul said that people would give heed to "seducing spirits" and "doctrines of devils." Muhammad’s infamous "Satanic Verses" provide a striking example of this. The Prophet of Islam received revelations saying that it was okay for his followers to pray to gods besides Allah. Later, he claimed that Satan had put those words on his lips. ^[21] Muhammad was therefore seduced by the doctrines of Satan, just as Paul predicted.

Fifth, Paul predicted that a time would come when people would not listen to sound doctrine. Instead, they would turn their ears away from the truth and listen to fables. An application of this prophecy can be made to Muslims today. While there are many Muslims who seek the truth, there are also many who don’t seem to care where the evidence points. Instead of acknowledging that Islam is an untenable religion, they go to teachers like Jamal Badawi and Shabir Ally, who tell them what they want to hear.

These prophecies may all be applied to Muhammad and to Islam. Thus, when Muhammad claimed that other messengers of God had prophesied about him, he was correct. The problem is that these messengers predicted the rise of false prophets, not the rise of a new religion after Christianity. Tragically, most people haven’t heeded the warnings of the prophets. To this day, many even reject the words of Christ. Yet when a man rises from the dead, vindicated by God, everyone should listen to what he says. And when this risen man tells us that false prophets will come, we should probably be suspicious of anyone claiming to be a prophet—especially one with Muhammad’s character flaws. Indeed, in addition to his other flaws, Muhammad is guilty rejecting one of the clearest prophecies in history, a prophecy about the death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth:

Who hath believed our report? And to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed? For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, And as a root out of a dry ground: He hath no form nor comeliness; And when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected of men; A man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: And we hid as it were our faces from him; He was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs, And carried our sorrows: Yet we did esteem him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: The chastisement of our peace was upon him; And with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned every one to his own way; And the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, Yet he opened not his mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment: And who shall declare his generation? For he was cut off out of the land of the living: For the transgression of my people was he stricken. And he made his grave with the wicked, And with the rich in his death; Because he had done no violence, Neither was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, He shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, And the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; For he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, And he shall divide the spoil with the strong; Because he hath poured out his soul unto death: And he was numbered with the transgressors; And he bare the sin of many, And made intercession for the transgressors. (Isaiah 53:1-12)

Notes:

¹ "Prophecies about the advent of Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, are met with in earlier sacred books and had great currency among the nations. . . . The Qur’an asserts that the appearance of the Holy Prophet was foretold by each and all of the foregoing prophets, through whom the covenant was also made with their respective peoples that they would accept him when he made his appearance" (Maulana Muhammad Ali, Muhammad the Prophet [St. Lambert: Payette and Sims, 1993], p. 22).
² All Qur’an quotations are taken from the Abdullah Yusuf Ali translation.
³ Sahih Al-Bukhari, Dr. Muhammad Matraji, tr. (New Delhi: Islamic Book Service, 2002), Number 2125.
⁴ Ibn Ishaq, Siraht Rasul Allah (The Life of Muhammad), A. Guillaume, tr. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1980), pp. 240-241.
⁵ Ibid., pp. 103-104.
⁶ Ibid., p. 656.
⁷ Yusuf Ali, Note 1127. Ali, like many other Muslim commentators, believes that the Greek Paracletos (comforter, helper, counselor) should be rendered Pariclytos (which, he claims, is the Greek form of Ahmad). However, there are more than 5,000 extant Greek manuscripts of John’s Gospel, and not a single one agrees with Ali’s claim. Muslim apologists fail to realize that, when a claim is made, evidence is required. There is simply no justification for the idea that the verse should read "Periclytos."
⁸ All Bible quotations are taken from the King James Version, since this is the version that Muslims typically use in their apologetics.
⁹ Ahmad Deedat, What the Bible Says About Muhammad (New Dehli: Islamic Book Service), p. 13.
¹⁰ "But (now), when the Truth Has come to them from Ourselves, They say, ‘Why are not (Signs) sent to him like Those which were sent to Moses?’ Do they not then reject (The Signs) which were formerly Sent to Moses?" (Qur’an 28:48). Ibn Ishaq adds: "[Muhammad said]: ‘How unfortunate is the death of Abu Umama! The Jews and the Arab hypocrites are sure to say "If he were a prophet his companion would not die" and (truly) I have no power from God for myself or for my companion (to avert death)’" (p. 235).
¹¹ Qur'an 3:49.
¹² Maulana Muhammad Ali, Muhammad in the Bible, p. 27.
¹³ Ibid., p. 27.
¹⁴ Ibid., pp. 22-23.
¹⁵ Ibid., p. 24.
¹⁶ Ibid., p. 25.
¹⁷ See Jamal Badawi, "Muhammad in the Bible."
¹⁸ Maulana Muhammad Ali, Muhammad in the Bible, p. 26.
¹⁹ For references, see "Islam Beheaded."
²⁰ For more on this, see "A Bewitched Prophet?"
²¹ See "A Bewitched Prophet?"

Source: http://answering-islam.org/Authors/Wood/muhammad_in_bible.htm

IHS