MUHAMMAD’S ARRIVAL IS THE GOSPEL (Good News) OF JESUS

Muhammad (pbuh) clears the distortions in Christianity:

The main distortions that have crept into Christianity have been negated by Allaah through the verses of Qur’aan, ( discussed in the previous article ), which was revealed to His last messenger, Muhammad (peace be upon him). There are more such verses in the Qur’aan which explain the real position of the aforesaid distortions and also some other.

Being clarifications from the Almighty Allaah, conveyed through His mighty messenger, Muhammad(pbuh), Muslims accept these rectifications to the Christian doctrine without hesitation. If a Christian too were to accept Muhammad (peace be upon him), as a prophet of God, like his belief in Moses or Jesus (peace be upon them), then he should have no difficulty in accepting the above rectification of wrong beliefs and, as a consequence of such acceptance, it will be easy for him to embrace Islaam, thereby placing both Jesus and Mary (peace be upon them) in their true, better and more respectable positions due to them.

However, since the strong faith of Christians on Jesus Christ (peace be upon him) is partly attributable to his good teachings and character and partly to the outstanding miracles performed by him, they, the Christians, having witnessed such great miracles and accustomed to them, similarly expect such physical feats from Muhammad (peace be upon him). As far as the character and the good teachings of Prophet Muhammad(pbuh) are concerned, I find almost all non-Muslims who have studied his life, appreciative of him. But what about the miracles..?

QUR’AAN IS AN EVER-LASTING MIRACLE GIVEN TO MUHAMMAD (pbuh) :

Muhammad (pbuh) has always pointed to the Qur’aan as the ever-lasting miracle given to him by God. And what does the Qur’aan say with regards to the performance of miracles by Muhammad (peace be upon him).

“They say: why does he not bring us a Sign from his Lord; Has not a clear sign come to them of all that is in the earlier scriptures ? ”(20:133)

And right now, we are going to look into the Signs that are there in the earlier scriptures and which relate to Muhammad (peace be upon him). And we begin with verses from the Bible that have been uttered by Jesus Christ (peace be upon him).

MUHAMMAD’S ARRIVAL FORETOLD BY JESUS.

Prophet Jesus (pbuh), during the last days of his stay on the earth, makes a prophecy about the arrival of another prophet after him. This simple-looking prophecy of the new testament John 16:12 and 16:13, just stops short of mentioning Prophet Muhammad by name, but identifies him with as many as six titles that denote him, two of them being excluseive titles nobody else could be conferred with in the whole history of mankind, i.e., the title of "The Last Prophet" and " The Unlettered Prophet ".

Let us have a look at verse 12 &13 of John 16 to know how Jesus(pbuh) prophesies about Muhammad (pbuh).

“ 12. I have yet many things to say unto you, but you cannot bear them now.

13. Howbeit when he, the spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come. ”

Now let us analyse the fine points of these verses:

1. A GUIDE :

Jesus (pbuh) says, " He will guide you.... ". That means he will be a guide, (Al-Haadi in Arabic). Thus the arrival of Muhammad (pbuh) is foretold by mentioning one of his attributes: a guide.

Allaah tells Muhammad (pbuh) in Qur’aan: 13:7 : “You are a warner, and for every folk a guide.” Allaah says Muhammad is a guide for every folk. And that does not exclude any folk, not even the Jews and Christians, the earlier recipients of Allaah’s messengers and book. And Jesus does not deny. He tells his target audience - the lost sheep of the house of Israel, and his followers, the Christians: “he will guide YOU into all truth.”

He does not say: “he will guide a people called Muslims”
or that “he will guide folks other than you”;
but he said “he will guide YOU.” implying that he will be their guide.
Therefore, it is binding upon the Christians that they accept the guidance of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), acting upon the word of Jesus (pbuh) and also heeding the warning given by the Almighty in Deuteronomy 18: 18 & 19, which we shall discuss later.

2. THE PROPHET. 3. THE LAST PROPHET.

In the verses 12 and 13 of John 16, Jesus (pbuh) says:

“ I have yet many things to say unto you, but you cannot bear them now. Howbeit when he, the spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth.”

The statement of Jesus (pbuh) carries an implication that his mission is incomplete: “ I have yet many things to say unto you...” .

And who will say the many things that he has to say?

Normally, Jesus (pbuh) should have continued his statement like this:

' The spirit of truth will say the many things I have to say.' or
' The spirit of truth will say the balance things. ' he didn’t say like that.
Neither he said: ' The spirit of truth will also say many things like me. '
But, rather, he says: ‘ The spirit of truth will guide you into all truth.’ So, what the spirit of truth will guide into is not only what truth Jesus (pbuh) has already said or left unsaid, but will comprise of all truth:

those truths said before Jesus (pbuh)
those truths said by Jesus (pbuh)
those truths left unsaid by Jesus (pbuh).
those truths distorted after Jesus (pbuh).
That is the full and true import of the word “ A L L ” .

So, when the spirit of truth comes and he guides you into all truth, what is left for anybody else to guide any more ? Nothing. That means the mission of the promised spirit of truth will not be incomplete like that of Jesus (pbuh), but it will be an accomplished one, calling for no more prophet to guide.

And how do we come to the conclusion that the ‘spirit of truth’ referred in the above verse is a prophet and not ‘holy spirit’ as interpreted by some Christian scholars? Please take a closer look at the last sentence of the verse 13 above. It says :

“ he will shew you things to come.”

And when you rephrase it into a shorter sentence......, it reads:

“ he will prophesy.”

And what do you call someone who prophesies .........? ........... a prophet ! and a prophet who is called the ‘spirit of truth’ is naturally a true prophet. .....and that too a prophet who will tell you all truth, not necessitating another prophet.

That is exactly what Allaah calls Muhammad (pbuh) in Qur’aan, sura 33, verse 40: Khaataman-Nabiyeen... the last of the prophets.

Normally, it would look odd, strange and unusual that a prophet of God toils so much to bring his people into the right path and then announces, as does Jesus (pbuh), that his mission is incomplete (“ I have yet many things to say unto you.”) and that they have to wait for the last prophet for further guidance (“ when he, the spirit of truth is come, he will guide you into all truth.”).

However, this is not inconsistent with the Divine Plan. Allaah says in Qur’aan 3:81 “ When Allaah made covenant with the prophets, (He said): Take whatever I have given you of the scripture and knowledge. And afterward there will come unto you a messenger, confirming that which you possess. You shall believe in him and you shall help him. He said: Do you agree, and will you take up My burden (which I lay upon you) in this (matter)?. They answered: We agree. He said: Then bear you witness. I will be a witness with you.”

From the above verse, it is clear that it was binding on Jesus (pbuh) to help Muhammad (pbuh), even if Muhammad had arrived during the lifetime of Jesus. This being so, it only behooves of Jesus (pbuh) that he should make clear to his followers the incomplete status of his mission and to advise them whom to look to for further guidance.

4. AS-SAADIQ (the truthful).

5. AL-AMEEN (the trustworthy).

Another thing Jesus (pbuh) clarifies in the verse 13 is that the promised guide will not speak of his own will (that is, the guidance will not be his own), but he will speak whatsoever he will be asked to speak by the Almighty.

“ for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, shall he speak.”

“ He shall not speak of himself.” : he will not cook up guidance from his own will and dish it out to you; The real quality of a truthful person - As-Saadiq.

“ But whatsoever he shall hear, shall he speak.” : he will not mutilate the guidance; he will not add to it; he will not deduct anything from it; “ but whatsoever he shall hear, shall he speak.” True qualities of a trustworthy person - Al-Ameen.

Muhammad (pbuh), earned these titles: As-Saadiq, the truthful, and Al-Ameen, the trustworthy, from his people even before he was conferred with the prophethood at the age of forty, because he always used to say the truth and was trustworthy in all his dealings.

6. THE UNLETTERED PROPHET :

Many prophets who came before Muhammad (pbuh) were given written books of law and guidance. ‘ Torah’ was given to Moses and ‘Zaboor’ given to David. ( Peace be upon them ). Why wasn’t Muhammad also given a written book like the other prophets ? Why is it being told about him that: “whatsoever he shall hear, shall he speak.” The answer to this question contains the other most important attribute of Prophet Muhammad.

Because: Muhammad was an unlettered prophet.

Thus in verse 13 of John 16, Jesus (pbuh) has foretold of the arrival of the ‘Spirit of Truth’ by denoting Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) with six of his titles:

Al Haadi The Guide
As Saadiq The Truthful
Al Ameen The Trust-worthy
An Nabee The Prophet
Khaatamun Nabeeyeen The Last Prophet
An-Nabeeyul Ummee The Unlettered Prophet

Since Christians believe the Bible to be true and the words of Jesus (pbuh) to be true, they must accept Muhammad (pbuh) to be the prophet whom Jesus (pbuh) is referring in the above prophecy.

The prophecy of Jesus about the expected prophet guiding into all truth has been fulfilled in no person other than Muhammad (pbuh). Christians can not show a person other than Muhammad (pbuh) in whom the prophecy of John 16:13 stands fulfilled.

An erroneous belief is held by some Christians that the prophecy foretells about the arrival of a holy spirit. Even if it is granted that the prophecy refers to the holy spirit, then one must contend with the fact that the holy spirit, Archangel Gabriel, also referred as roohul-qudus (holy spirit) in the Qur’aan, did arrive, and brought the complete guidance from the Almighty as prophesied, but not directly to persons like you and me, but to prophet Muhammad (pbuh), which guidance is referred in the above verses.

(Muhammad (pbuh) received the first revelation at the age of forty and the revelation was through the holy spirit, and so it was for the rest of the 23 years of his life. Hence, the two events, Muhammad’s prophethood and the arrival of Archangel Gabriel are not two events of separate significance, but is one and the same predicted event).

And the Christians imagining that the weird events alleged in Acts 2 of Bible fulfil the expected arrival of the spirit must try to see that these alleged events are far from ‘guidance into all truth’, promised in the above verses.

Thus, in plain language, Jesus (pbuh) tells his followers:

Since you are not ready now to bear the many things I have to say, when the last and the unlettered prophet, the truthful and the trustworthy, comes, he will guide you into all truth.

This is the Gospel, the good news, brought by Jesus (pbuh).

And just how dangerous it is to ignore the guidance, we shall see, God willing, in the context of another prophecy relating to Muhammad (pbuh) in the old testament.