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MUHAMMAD AND THE BIBLE

BEING

An Inquiry into the Allegation that
Certain Passages in the Bible Foretell Muhammad

Qur'anic references were edited to reflect the verse numbers used in modern translations of the Qur'an.
Also, some footnotes were edited to give additional support for the text.

Reading Bible

BY THE

REV. WILLIAM GOLDSACK

Australian  Baptist Missionary  and Apologist

1871–1957

Author of: The Qu’ran In Islam, Christ In Islam,
The Traditions In Islam, God In Islam, Muhammad In Islam. . .

THE CHRISTIAN LITERATURE SOCIETY
FOR INDIA

MADRAS, ALLAHABAD, CALCUTTA, RANGOON, COLOMBO.
1915
Price 3 As

MUHAMMAD AND THE BIBLE

INTRODUCTION

MOST Muslims believe that their Prophet Muhammad has been foretold in the Torah and Injil, and some Muslim writers have even quoted various passages from those books in which, it is affirmed, the Arabian lawgiver has been predicted. Such attempts to find the Prophet Muhammad in the Bible are not without reason, for if, as is believed by Muslims, Muhammad was indeed the last and greatest Prophet, and if, by his coming, all previous dispensations have been abrogated, then we should certainly expect to find clear and repeated predictions concerning him in the previous Scriptures, in the same manner that the Lord Jesus Christ was foretold in the Scriptures of the Jews. Muhammad was pleased to call himself the Ummi Prophet; and although the exact meaning of the term is disputed, yet there can be little reason to doubt that he never personally read the Scriptures of the Jews and Christians. At the same time there were not wanting Jewish and Christian converts to Islam who undoubtedly led Muhammad to believe that he was a Prophet whose advent was clearly foretold in the Bible. ‘The Jewish anticipation of their Messiah, and the perfectly distinct anticipation by the Christians of the second advent of Christ were thus fused into a common argument for a coming Prophet expected by both Jews and Christians, and foretold in all the Scriptures.’ Under such circumstances it is not surprising to find Muhammad describing himself in the pages of the Qur'an as,

النَّبِيَّ الأُمِّيَّ الَّذِي يَجِدُونَهُ مَكْتُوباً عِندَهُمْ فِي التَّوْرَاةِ وَالإِنْجِيلِ

‘the Ummi Prophet—whom they (the Jews and Christians) shall find described with them in the Torah and Injil’ (Qur’an Al-A'raf 7:157). In another place, in still more explicit language, he claims to have been prophesied by name. Thus we read:—

وَإِذْ قَالَ عِيسَى ابْنُ مَرْيَمَ يَا بَنِي إِسْرَائِيلَ إِنِّي رَسُولُ اللَّهِ إِلَيْكُم مُّصَدِّقاً لِّمَا بَيْنَ يَدَيَّ مِنَ التَّوْرَاةِ وَمُبَشِّراً بِرَسُولٍ يَأْتِي مِن بَعْدِي اسْمُهُ أَحْمَدُ

‘And, remember, when Jesus the son of Mary said, “O Children of Israel! of a truth I am God's apostle to you to confirm the Torah which was given before me, and to announce an apostle that shall come after me, whose name shall be Ahmad”’ (Qur’an As-Saff 61:6). Under such circumstances it is perfectly natural for Muslims to seek the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments for the prophecies which Muhammad was persuaded to believe were hidden there. It is our purpose, therefore, in this little book, to examine the principal passages of the Bible quoted by Muslims in which they claim to find predictions, more or less explicit, of the coming of Muhammad, and to show that in no passage whatever is there the slightest hint of any true Prophet who should come after Jesus the Messiah.