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VII

Teman and Mount Paran

Habakkuk 3:3

Another passage of the Old Testament frequently quoted by Muslims ²⁴ as containing a prediction of Muhammad is found in Habakkuk 3:3. It runs thus, ‘God came from Teman, ²⁵ and the Holy One from Mount Paran.’ Those who have studied the ancient geography of Bible lands know that Teman was near Paran, which latter place, we have already shown, was at least 500 miles north of Mecca. As a. matter of fact Teman was a part of the country of Edom. This will be made clear from the following passage, ‘Of Edom, thus saith the Lord of hosts: Is wisdom no more in Teman?’ (Jeremiah 49:7). Again we read, ‘Therefore thus saith the Lord God, I will stretch out mine hand upon Edom, and will cut off man and beast from it: and I will make it desolate from Teman’ (Ezekiel 25:13). These quotations are sufficient to fix the locality of Teman, which could not have been many miles to the south of the Dead Sea. It has absolutely no reference whatever to Muhammad. As to the words, ‘The Holy One from Mount Paran’, we have already shown (p. 15) that Muhammad had no more connexion with Paran than with India. It was at least 500 miles from Mecca, and was a place of which he was probably totally ignorant.

In the second place, if we study carefully the passage under discussion, together with its context, it will be clearly seen that it applies to no human being whatever, but God Himself. ²⁶ It was God who came from Teman, and He was the Holy One who came from Mount Paran. One has only to remember the many passages in both Qur'an and Ahadith in which the sins of Muhammad are mentioned in order to realize how impossible it is for this description to apply to him. Nor, again, can it be truly said of Muhammad that, ‘His glory covered the heavens’ (Habakkuk 3:3), or that ‘His ways are everlasting’ (Habakkuk 3:6). The whole passage, indeed, can only apply to God; and only the most wilful blindness of heart can see in it any prophecy of Muhammad.