From maalkadh@mailbox.syr.edu (Misha'al Al-Kadhi)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.islam
Subject: Where is the coming of Muhammad prophesied in the Bible? 
Date: Thu Mar 14 18:34:02 EST 1996
Message-ID:   <4iaada$q70@shellx.best.com>
Organization: Syracuse University

In article <4i5mts$e46@shellx.best.com> Steve Walker 
<skw@skwalker.demon.co.uk> writes:

> I have seen reference in articles in this newsgroup to biblical passages
> predicting the coming of Muhammad.

> I would be grateful if someone could post the biblical references, with
> an explanation as to how they refer to Muhammad, since I assume they are
> interpreted rather than explicit (or I would not have to ask which they
> are).

> Thanks.
> -- 
> Steve Walker

Hello Steve.
You present a valid request.  IN what follows I shall do my best to answer it.

If one were to read the Old Testament, they would be presented with many 
prophesies of the comming of Jesus.  Both Muslims as well as Christians 
agree to that.  However, if we were to ask a Christian to please show us
where the OT mentions Jesus "by name" then we would be unable to find a single
such prophesy.  All prophesies of Jesus consist of Christians looking at the
"descriptions" presented in a given verse and then comparing them Jesus,
if they find them to fit then they say it speaks about him.

Actually, many Chrsitians have gone much further than that by telling us that
they have found evidence of world wars, the Pope, and other matters in
the Bible.  SO the question becomes, does the Bible have anything to say about 
prophet Muhammad (pbuh)?  Most likely, the answer shall be a resounding NO!

So we need to ask, if the Bible has prophesied all of these other matters, 
then why does it have absolutely nothing to say about the one who would succeed
in teaching billions upon billions of people throughout the ages to believe in
Jesus, in his miraculous birth, in his piety and chastity, in his truthfulness,
in his miracles, in the purity and chastity of his mother Mary (peace be upon 
them both), end so forth?

In truth, the Bible is not silent on this issue, however, just as it requires 
us to research history and the characteristics of Jesus (pbuh) in order to 
find the prophesies of Jesus, so too must we research history and the 
characteristics of prophet Muhammad (pbuh) and the Islamic nation in order to 
see what the Bible has to say about him.

In what follows I shall do my best to present only a few of the many 
prophesies of prophet Muhammad (pbuh) in the Bible.

Sincerely
Misha'al
*********************************************

First Prophesy:
--------------
Habakkuk 3:3  "God (his guidance) came from Teman, and the Holy One from mount 
Paran. Selah. His glory covered the heavens, and the earth was full of his 
praise."

The wilderness of Paran is where Abraham's wife Hagar and his eldest son Ishmael, 
the father of the Arabs, settled (Genesis 21:21) in the Arabian desert. 
Specifically, Makkah*.  Makkah is, of course, the capital of Islam in Arabia 
and the birthplace of Muhammad (pbuh).  Indeed, it was Hagar and Ishmael 
themselves who transformed a barren patch of desert into what is now the 
capital of Islam, "Makkah." Mount Paran is the chain of mountains in that same 
region which the Arabs call the "Sarawat mountains."

Muhammad (pbuh) first became the prophet of Islam in the cave of "Hira’a" located 
in the highest part of these mountains.  Jesus (pbuh) never in his life 
traveled to Paran nor Teman.  Muhammad, however, was born in Paran, he died 
there, and it was the capital of the Islamic religion in that day and this.  
No man from Paran, throughout history, has had his praise sung in so many 
nations throughout creation as has Muhammad (pbuh).  The name "Muhammad" 
itself literally means in Arabic "The praised one."  Through the teachings of 
Muhammad, God is now being praised by over one billion Muslims around the 
world.

According to J. Hasting's Dictionary of the Bible, Teman is an Oasis just 
North of Madinah in teh Arabian Peninsula.  Muhammad (pbuh) did indeed come 
from Paran.  About 622 AD, he and his followers were forced to migrate from 
Makkah to Madinah where he spent the major portion of his prophetic life 
teaching it's people the guidance of God (the Qur'an).  These two cities, 
Makkah and Madinah, are such critical importance to a Muslims faith that every 
single chapter of the Qur’an is classified as either "Makkia" (revealed in 
Makkah) or "Madaniyyah" (revealed in Madinah).


-----------------------------------
*Note:
------
Some difference of opinion has arisen as to where "Paran" actually is 
with some people mistakenly concluding that it is in Sinai.  However, this is 
resolved very simply by recognizing the following four points:

1) The Bible tells us in Genesis 21:21 that Ishmael, the son of prophet 
Abraham and the father of the Arabs, settled in "Paran."  This is where he 
would live and die and this is where he raised all of his children.  Ishmael 
was the father of the Arabs.  Thus, we would be justified in assuming that the 
Arabs should be better aquatinted with where their father (and them 
themselves) lived than any other nation, and it is a well established fact 
among the Arabs that their father Ishmael was the founder of the city of 
Makkah, as well as the one who, with the help of prophet Abraham (pbut) built 
the holy house of God, the Ka’aba, in that city.

2) The Arabs and Jews are Semitic cousins.  They descend from the same father, 
prophet Abraham (pbuh).  Their languages, Arabic and Hebrew, are very similar 
in many respects since they have a common ancestry.  However, Arabic never 
died out as a spoken language for many centuries as Hebrew did.  In Arabic, 
the word Paran is pronounced "Faran" which means "Two who migrated."  This 
word is used in the Qur’an to convey the meaning of "emigrating to your Lord" 
or "escaping to your Lord".  This can be found in the verse of 
Al-Thariat(51):50.  Indeed, Ishmael and his ther, Hagar, did in fact emigrate 
(as witnessed by the Bible too) to this location which would later become the 
city of Makkah.

3) The Bible itself distinguishes between the wilderness of Sinai and the 
wildness of Paran in Numbers 10:12.  It is quite clear from this verse that 
thy are two different locations.

4) The Lebanese Christian, Kamal Salibi, places Paran in close proximity to 
Makkah.  On page 215 of his book ‘The Bible Came from Arabia’ he says: ".. the 
place in question could have been Faran, in the Zahran highlands, bordering on 
the basaltic desert of Harrat Al-Buqum.  In any case, this Faran was no doubt 
the Biblical Paran"


Continue with the response.
Prophecy claims about Muhammad
Answering Islam Home Page