There are two very significant remarks about John the
Baptist made by Jesus Christ, but recorded in a mysterious
way. The first remark about the Baptist is that in which
John is presented to the world as the reincarnate Eliah
(Elijah) the Old Testament. The mystery with which this
appellation is enveloped consists in the significant silence of
Christ about the identity of the person whom Eliah (not
Elias) was expected to officially announce and introduce to
the world as the Last Prophet. The language of Jesus in this
respect is exceedingly obscure, ambiguous, and mysterious. If
John was Eliah, as is expressly and fearlessly declared,
why, then, is the person whose precursor was Eliah not
expressly and fearlessly mentioned? If Jesus were the
"Messenger of the Covenant" and the Dominator [as the
Vulgate translates the Hebrew Adon (Mal. iii. 1)], why does
he not openly say so? If he courageously declared that it
was not he himself but another Prophet who was that
'Dominator' it must, indeed, have been a criminal hand
which erased and effaced the words of Jesus from the original
Gospel. At all events, it is the Gospels that are responsible
for this ambiguity and obscurity. It cannot but be described
as diabolical tampering with the text that has misled billions
of Christians for so many centuries. Jesus, whatever he
believed he represented, ought to have, to say the least,
shown himself straightforward, and to have frankly declared:
"John is the Eliah who was sent as a precursor to prepare
the way for me!" Or if such was not the case, then he could
have made the following declaration: "John is the Eliah who
was sent to prepare the way for Prophet Muhammad." Perhaps this is
due to the love of Jesus for ambiguity. There are, in fact,
several instances - as reported in the Gospels - where
Jesus gives an answer or makes a statement which is obscure
and entirely unintelligible. Leaving his godhead aside, as a
Prophet, no, even as a teacher, he was expected to be a
straightforward teacher and leader.
The other remark is shrouded in still a thicker mystery.
"No man born of woman was ever greater than John the
Baptist," says Jesus, "but the least in the Kingdom of Heaven
is greater than John." Does Jesus Christ mean to teach us
that John the Baptist and all the Prophets and the righteous
men were outside the Kingdom of God? Who is the "least"
that was "greater" than John, and consequently than all the
people of God preceding the Baptist? Does Jesus mean by
the "least" himself, or the "least" among the baptized Christians? It cannot be himself, because in his time that Kingdom
was not yet established on earth; if it is, then he could not
be the "least" in it since he was its founder. The Churches -
rather each Church, orthodox or heterodox, from its own
peculiar point of view - have discovered a very abstruse or
a very absurd solution for this problem; and that solution
is that the "]east" Christian washed with the blood of Jesus
- either through the Sacrament of Baptism, according to
the belief of the Sacerdotalists, or through the regeneration
of some kind, according to the superstition of the Evangelicals - becomes "greater" than the Baptist and all the army
of the holy men and women, including Prophets Adam, Noah,
Abraham, Moses, David, Eliah, Daniel, and John the
Baptist! And the reason or proof of this marvelous claim is
that the Christian, however, sinful, ignorant, low, and poor
he may be, providing he has faith in Jesus as his Savior,
has the privileges which the holy Prophets coveted to have
but did not enjoy. These privileges are innumerable; purification from original sin through the Christian Baptism; the
knowledge of the "Holy Trinity" (!!! hasha! astaghfiru
'llah! - Allah forbid and pardon this term); the feeding upon
the flesh and the blood of Jesus in the Sacrament of the
Eucharist; the grace of making the sign of a cross; the privilege of the keys of Heaven and of Hell delivered to the
Sovereign Pontiff; and the rapturous ecstasies of the Puritans,
Quakers, Brethren, and all other sects called Nonconformists
who, each in its own way, while claiming the same privileges
and perogatives, all agree that each good Christian will
become on the Day of Resurrection a pure virgin and present
herself as a bride to the "Lamb of God"!
Do you not think, then, that the Christians are right to
believe that the "least" among them is "greater" than all the
Prophets? Do you not think, then, that a sturdy Patagonian
monk and a penitentiary Parisian nun are higher than Adam
and Eve, because the mystery of the Trinity is revealed to
these confused people and not to our first parents who lived in the
Paradise of Allah before their fall? Or, don't you think that this
sort of belief is most unbecoming and undignified in these
lofty times of advanced science and civilization? To claim
that an English prince or an orphan negro is "greater" that
John the Baptist because they are Christians is, to say the
least, abominable!
Yet all these diverse beliefs and creeds are derived
from the New Testament and from the words put into the
mouth of Jesus and of his Apostles. For us Muslim,
however, there are a few scintillating sparkles left in
the Gospels; and they are enough for us to discover the truth
about the real Jesus and his cousin, Yohannan Ma'mdana
(John-Baptist).
JOHN THE BAPTIST FORETOLD PROPHET MUHAMMAD
1. According to the testimony of Prophet Jesus, no man born
of woman was ever greater than John the Baptist. But the
"least" in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than John. The
comparison made by the "Spirit of Allah" (Ruhu 'llah, i.e.
Jesus) is between John and all the preceding Prophets as
the officers and administrators of the Kingdom of Heaven.
Now in chronological order the last Prophet would be the
least of them all, he would be their junior and their youngest.
The word "zira" in the Aramaic, like the Arabic "saghir,"
signifies "little, small young." The Pshittha Version uses the
word "zira or "z'eira" in apposition to "rabba" for "great,
old." Every Christian will admit that Jesus is not the "last"
Prophet, and therefore he cannot be the "least." Not only
were the Apostles themselves endowed with the gift of prophecy, but also many other holy men in the apostolic age
were favored with it according to (Acts xi. 27, 28; xiii. 1; xv.
32; xxi, 9, 10, etc)!
And as we cannot determine which of these numerous
Church Prophets was the "last", we are naturally forced to
seek elsewhere a Prophet who is indisputably the Last and
the Seal of the Prophetic List. Can we imagine a stronger
and more brilliant evidence in favor of Prophet Muhammad than the
fulfillment, in his holy person, of this wonderful prophecy of
Jesus Christ?
In the long list of the prophetic family, certainly the
"youngest," the "least" is Prophet Muhammad; he is the "Benjamin"
of the Prophets; yet he is their Sultan, their "Adon" and their
"Glory." To deny the prophetical and apostolical character
and nature of Prophet Muhammad's mission is a fundamental denial
of the whole Divine Revelation and all the Prophets who
preached it. For all other Prophets put together had not accomplished the gigantic work which the Prophet of Mecca did
alone in the short period of but twenty-three years of his
mission.
The mystery of the pre-existence of the spirits of the
Prophets has not been revealed to us, but every true Muslim
believes it. It was that pre-existing spirit that by the power
of the Word of Allah "Kun" ("Be!") a Sarah, a Hanna, and
a Blessed Virgin Mary gave birth to Isaac, to the Baptist, and
to Jesus. There are several other names as recorded in the
Old Testament - for instance, Samson, Jeremiah.
The Gospel of Barnabas reports Jesus as speaking of
the Spirit of Prophet Muhammad which he declares to have been
created before everything else. Hence the Baptist's witness
about the Prophet whom he foretold: "He who comes after
me has become before me, for he was before me" (John i.
15).
It is useless to interpret these wonderful words of the
Baptist about Prophet Muhammad as referring to Prophet Jesus
as the author of the Fourth Gospel attempts to do.
There is a remarkable chapter about John the Baptist in
the well-known book of Ernest Renan on La vie de Jesu.
Long ago I carefully read this work. If the learned French
writer had the least consideration for Prophet Muhammad's claim in
the world of Prophets, I am sure his profound investigations
and comments would have led him entirely to a different
conclusion. He, like all other dissident and Biblical critics,
instead of finding out the truth, criticizes religion adversely
and leads his readers to skepticism.
I am happy to say that it is my privilege, by the Grace
of Allah, to solve the problem, to ring up the curtain of
mystery which has covered the true sense and meaning of
"the Least in the Kingdom of Heaven!"
2. John the Baptist recognizes Prophet Muhammad as superior
and more powerful than himself. That significant expression
made to the Jewish multitudes, "He that cometh after me"
reminded their Scribes, Pharisees, and lawyers of the ancient
prophecy of their great ancestor Prophet Jacob, in which that
patriarch uses the unique title of "Shilokhah" for the "Rasul
Allah," the epithet frequently used by Prophet Jesus for
the Messenger Muhammad as preserved in the Gospel of
Barnabas. At the time of writing my article on the "Shiloh" (l)
I said that the word might be a corruption of "shiloukh" or
"Shilokhah," (2) which means the Messenger of Allah, but I did
not then recollect that St. Jerome, as well, had understood the
Hebrew form in that sense, for he has translated it as "qui
mittendis est."
------------Footnotes: (1). Cf. Islamic Review for September, 1928, p.
313 et seq. (2). The Oriental Hebrews and Assyrians pronounce the word "Shilokha"
or "Shiloakh." It is very difficult to write or transliterate the Semitic languages
in the Latin characters. ------------- end of footnotes
We have only an epitome of John's sermon in a few lines,
written not by himself but by an unknown hand - at least
not in his own original tongue - and much tampered with
by transcribers and redactors who had already made his
disciple Jesus an idol or a god. But when we come to compare this sermon preached in the wilderness of Judea and on
the shores of the Jordan with the marvelous grace, elegance,
eloquence, and power so manifest in every verse and page
of the Holy Qur'an, we understand the sense of the words,
"He is more powerful than I!"
When I picture to myself the ascetic Baptist preaching
aloud in the wilderness, or on the banks of the Jordan, to
the masses of the Jewish believers, with a theocratic history
of some four thousand years old behind them, and then make
a brief review of the quiet, orderly, and dignified manner in
which Prophet Muhammad proclaimed the celestial verses of the
Qur'an to the unbelieving Arabs; and, finally, when I examine and
behold the effect of the two preachings upon the
hearers and the final result, I understand the magnitude of
the contrast between them, and of the significance of the
words "He is more powerful than I!"
When I contemplate the seizure and imprisonment of the helpless Baptist by
Herod Antipas (l) and his cruel decapitation - or when I peruse the confused
but tragical biblical accounts of the flagellation of Jesus (or Judah Ishariot)
by Pilate, his coronation with a crown of thorns by Herod, and the catastrophe
upon the Calvary - and then turn my eyes upon the triumphal entry of the great
Adon - the Sultan of the Prophets - into Mecca, the total destruction of all
the ancient idols and the purification of the Holy Ka'ba; upon the thrilling
scene of the vanquished deadly enemy headed by Abu Sufyan at the feet of the
victorious Shilohah - the Prophet of Allah - begging his clemency and making
the profession of faith; and upon the glorious worship, devotion, and the final
sermon of the Seal of the Prophets in these solemn Divine words: "Al-yauma akmaltu
lakum dmakum." "This day I have perfected your Relgion and completed My favor
to you. I have approved Islam to be your Religion..." Ch.5:3 Qur'an then I fully
understand the weight and value of the Baptist's confession, "He is more powerful
than I!"
-----------Footnote: (1). There is anachronism in the account of John's
martyrdom concerning the family of Herod the Great in the Gospels (Matt. xiv,
etc.), the reader can consult the Antiquities of Joseph Flavius. ------------
end of footnote
3. "The Coming Wrath." Have you ever met with a sensible,
judicious, and convincing interpretation of this
phrase in any of the numerous commentaries on the Gospels?
What does John mean, or wish his audience to understand,
by his expression: "Behold the axe is already set at the root
of the tree"? Or his remark: "He holds the van in his hand
to purge out his threshing-floor"? Or when he reduced the
title "Children of Abraham" to nothing?
I will not detain you on the vagaries of the commentators, for they are reveries
which neither John nor his hearers had ever dreamed of. Could John ever teach
those haughty Pharisees, and those rationalistic Saduqees (1) who denied the
corporeal resurrection, that on the day of the last judgment Jesus of Nazareth
would pour down upon them his wrath and burn them like the fruitless trees and
like the chaff in the fire of Hell? There is not a single word in all the literature
of the Scriptures about the resurrection of bodies or about Hell-fire. These
Talmudistic writings are full of eschatological material very similar to those
of the Zardushtees, but have no distinct origin in the canonical books. The
Prophet of repentance and of good tidings does not speak about the remote and
indefinite wrath which certainly awaits the unbelievers and the impious, but
of the near and proximate catastrophe of the Jewish nation. He threatened the
wrath of Allah awaiting that people if they persisted in their sins and the
rejection of his mission and that of his colleague, the Prophet Jesus Christ.
The coming calamity was the destruction of Jerusalem and the final dispersion
of Israel which took place some thirty years afterwards during the lifetime
of many among his hearers. Both he and Jesus announced the coming of the Great
Prophet of Allah whom the Patriarch Jacob had announced under the title of Shiloha,
and that at his advent all prophetic and royal privileges and authority would
be taken away from the Jews; and, indeed, such was the case some six centuries
later, when their last strongholds in the Hijaz were razed to the ground and
their principalities destroyed by Prophet Muhammad. The increasingly dominating
power of Rome in Syria and Palestine was threatening the quasiautonomy of the
Jews, and the emigration current among the Jews had already begun. And it was
on this account that the preacher inquires, "Who has informed you to flee from
the coming wrath?" They were warned and exhorted to bear good fruits and good
harvest by repentance and belief in the true Messengers of God, especially in
the Rasul Allah, who was the true and the last powerful Commander.
------------Footnote: (1). This Hebrew name is wrongly written "Saducees."
------------- end of footnote
4. The Jews and the Christians have always charged Prophet
Muhammad of having established the religion of Islam by
force, coercion, and the sword. The Muslim modernists
have always tried to refute this charge. But this does not
mean to say that Prophet Muhammad never wielded the sword. He
had to use it to preserve the Name of Allah. Every patience
has limits, every favor has an end. It is not that the Patience
or Favor of Allah is finite; with Him all is settled, defined
and fixed. The chance and the time graciously granted by
Allah to the Jews, to the Arabs, and to the Gentiles lasted
for more than four thousand years. It was only after the
expiry of this period that Allah sends His beloved Prophet Muhammad
with power and sword, with fire and spirit, to deal with
the wicked unbelievers, with the ungrateful children of Prophet
Abraham - both the Ishmaelites and the Israelites - and
to deal with the power of the devil, once for all.
The whole of the Old Testament is a tale of theocracy
and of idolatry. Now and then a little sparkle of Islam -
that is, the Religion of Allah - glittered in Jerusalem and
in Mecca; but it was always persecuted by the power of the
devil. The four diabolical Beasts had to come and trample
under their feet the handful of believers in Allah. Then
comes Prophet Muhammad to crush and kill the Venemous Serpent
and to give him the opprobrious title of "Iblis" - the
"Bruised" Satan. Certainly Prophet Muhammad was a fighting
Prophet, but the object of that fighting was victory not
vengeance, defeat of the enemy and not his extermination,
and, in a word, to establish the Religion of Islam as the
Kingdom of God upon the earth. In fact, when the Crier
in the desert shouted, aloud, "Prepare the way of the Lord,
and make straight His paths," he was alluding to the Religion
of the Lord in the form of a Kingdom which was drawing
nigh. Seven centuries before, the Prophet Isaiah had cried
out and pronounced the same words (Isa. xl. 1-4); and a
couple of centuries later Allah Himself paved the way for
Cyrus by raising and filling up every valley, and by lowering
every hill and mountain, in order to make the conquest easy
and the march rapid (xlv. 1-3). History repeats itself, they
say; the language and its meaning is the same in both cases,
the former being a prototype of the latter. Allah had
smoothed the path for Cyrus, subdued his enemies to the
Persian conqueror because of His House in Jerusalem and
His chosen people in the captivity. Now again He was
repeating the same providence, but on a larger and wider
scale. Before the preaching of Prophet Muhammad, idols and
falsehood disappeared; before his sword empires tumbled down;
and the children of the Kingdom of Allah became equals
and formed a "people of the Saints of the Most High."
For it is only in Islam that all the believers are equal, no
priest, no sacrament; no Muslim high as a hill, or low like a
valley; and no caste or distinction of race and rank. All
believers are one, except in virtue and piety, in which they
can excel each other. It is only the religion of Islam that
does not recognize any being, however great and holy, as an
absolute mediator between Allah and man.
No Copyright:
Any
organisation or individual wishing to reprint or copy the contents of
this website
may do so as long as the information is kept in its original form,
names of
all authors and sources are kept intact and is used for non-malicious
purposes.
An acknowledgement would be HIGHLY appreciated.
