The present barren period of classical scholarship,
together with the increasing paucity of our knowledge of
ancient languages, has crippled modern taste in its efforts
to appreciate any such attempts as I intend to make in that
direction. The following pages have produced a series of
most able articles from the Rev. Professor 'Abdu 'l-Ahad Dawud,
but I wonder if there are many, even among the hierarchy of the
Christian Church, who could follow the erudite exposition of
the learned Professor. All the more do I wonder when he seeks
to carry his readers into a labyrinth of languages, dead and
done with thousands of years ago. What about Aramaic, when very
few even among the Clergy are able to understand the Vulgate and
the original Greek version of the New Testament? More
especially when our researches are based simply upon Greek
and Latin etymology! Whatever may be the value of such
dissertations in the eye's of others we, nowadays, are absolutely
incapable of appreciating them from the angle of erudition;
for the oracular ambiguity attached to the prophetic utter-
ances to which I allude makes them elastic enough to cover
any case.
The "least" in the prophecy of St. John the
Baptist may not be the son of Mary, though he was looked
upon as such contemptuously by his own tribe. The Holy
Carpenter came from humble parentage. He was shouted
down, mocked and discredited; he was belittled and made
to appear the "least" in the public estimation by the Scribes
and Pharisees. The excess of zeal displayed by his followers
in the second and third centuries A.D., which was ever prone
to jump at anything in the form of a prophecy in the Bible,
would naturally induce them to believe that their Lord was
the person alluded to by the Baptist.
However, there is another difficulty in the way. How
can a person rely on the testimony of a book admittedly filled
with folk-lore? The genuineness of the Bible has univer-
sally been questioned. Without going into the question of
its genuineness, we may at least say that we cannot depend
on its statements concerning Jesus and his miracles. Some
even go so far as to assert that his existence as an historical
person is questionable, and that on the authority of the
Gospels it would be dangerous to arrive at any apparently
safe conclusion in this matter. A Christian of the Funda-
mentalist type cannot well say anything against my statement
of the case. If "stray sentences" and detached words in the
Old Testament can be singled out by synoptic writers as
applicable to Jesus, the comments of the learned writer of
these erudite and absorbing articles must command every
respect and appreciation even from the Clergy. I write in
the same strain, but I have tried to base my arguments on
portions of the Bible which hardly allow of any linguistic
dispute. I would not go to Latin, Greek, or Aramaic, for
that would be useless: I just give the following quotation in
the very words of the Revised Version as published by the
British and Foreign Bible Society.
We read the following words in the Book of Deuteronomy
chapter xviii. verse 18: "I will raise them up a prophet
from among their brethren, like unto thee; and I will put
my words in his mouth." If these words do not apply to Prophet
Muhammad, they still remain unfulfilled. Prophet Jesus
himself never claimed to be the Prophet alluded to. Even
his disciples were of the same opinion: they looked to the
second coming of Jesus for the fulfillment of the prophecy.
So far it is undisputed that the first coming of Jesus was not
the advent of the "prophet like unto thee," and his second
advent can hardly fulfill the words. Jesus, as is believed by
his Church, will appear as a Judge and not as a law-giver;
but the promised one has to come with a "fiery law" in "his
right hand."
In ascertaining the personality of the promised prophet
the other prophecy of Moses is, however, very helpful where
it speaks of the shining forth of God from Paran, the
mountain of Mecca. The words in the Book of Deuteronomy, chapter
xxxiii. verse 2, run as follows: "The Lord came from Sinai,
and rose up from Seir unto them; he shined forth from mount
Paran, and he came with ten thousands of saints; from his
right hand went a fiery law for them."
In these words the Lord has been compared with the
sun. He comes from Sinai, he rises from Seir, but he shines
in his full glory from Paran, where he had to appear with
ten thousands of saints with a fiery law in his right hand.
None of the Israelites, including Jesus, had anything to do
with Paran. Hagar, with her son Ishmael, wandered in the
wilderness of Beersheba, who afterwards dwelt in the wilder-
ness of Paran (Gen. xxi. 21). He married an Egyptian
woman, and through his first-born, Kedar, gave descent to
the Arabs who from that time till now are the dwellers of the
wilderness of Paran. And if Prophet Muhammad admittedly on all
hands traces his descent to Ishmael through Kedar and he
appeared as a prophet in the wilderness of Paran and re-
entered Mecca with ten thousand saints and gave a fiery law
to his people, is not the prophecy above-mentioned fulfilled
to its very letter?
The words of the prophecy in Habakkuk are especially noteworthy.
His (the Holy One from Paran) glory covered the heavens and the
earth was full of his praise. The word "praise" is very significant,
as the very name Muhammad literally means "the praised one."
Besides the Arabs, the inhabitants of the wilderness of Paran had
also been promised a Revelation: "Let the wilderness and the
cities thereof lift up their voice, the villages that Kedar doth
inhabit: let the inhabitants of the rock sing, let them shout
from the top of the mountains. Let them give glory unto
the Lord, and declare His praise in the islands. The Lord
shall go forth as a mighty man, he shall stir up jealousy like
a man of war, he shall cry, yea, roar; he shall prevail against
his enemies" (Isaiah).
In connection with it there are two other prophecies
worthy of note where references have been made to Kedar.
The one runs thus in chapter 1x. of Isaiah: "Arise, shine for
thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon
thee ... The multitude of camels shall cover thee, the
dromedaries of Midian and Ephah; all they from Sheba shall
come.. All the flocks of Kedar shall be gathered together
unto thee, the rams of Nebaioth shall minister unto thee: they
shall come up with acceptance on mine altar, and I will
glorify the house of my glory" (1-7). The other prophecy
is again in Isaiah "The burden upon Arabia. In the
forest in Arabia shall ye lodge, O ye travelling companies of
Dedanim. The inhabitants of the land of Tema brought
water to him that was thirsty, they prevented with their bread
him that fled. For they fled from the swords and from
the bent bow, and from the grievousness of war. For thus
hath the Lord said unto me, Within a year, according to the
years of an hireling, and all the glory of Kedar shall
fail: And the residue of the number of archers, the mighty
of the children of Kedar, shall be diminished" Read these
prophecies in Isaiah in the light of one in Deutero-
nomy which speaks of the shining forth of God from Paran.
If Ishmael inhabited the wilderness of Paran, where he gave
birth to Kedar, who is the ancestor of the Arabs; and if the
sons of Kedar had to receive revelation from God; if the
flocks of Kedar had to come up with acceptance to a Divine
altar to glorify "the house of my glory" where the darkness
had to cover the earth for some centuries, and then that very
land had to receive light from God; and if all the glory of
Kedar had to fail and the number of archers, the mighty men
of the children of Kedar, had to diminish within a year after
the one fled from the swords and from the bent bows - the
Holy One from Paran (Habakkuk iii 3 ) is no one else than
Prophet Muhammad. Prophet Muhammad is the holy offspring of
Ishmael through Kedar, who settled in the wilderness of Paran.
Muhammad is the only Prophet through whom the Arabs
received revelation at the time when the darkness had covered
the earth. Through him God shone from Paran, and Mecca
is the only place where the House of God is glorified and
the flocks of Kedar come with acceptance on its altar.
Prophet Muhammad was persecuted by his people and had to leave
Mecca. He was thirsty and fled from the drawn sword and
the bent bow, and within a year after his flight the descen-
dants of Kedar meet him at Badr, the place of the first battle
between the Meccans and the Prophet, the children of Kedar
and their number of archers diminish and all the glory of
Kedar fails. If the Holy Prophet is not to be accepted as
the fulfillment of all these prophecies they will still remain
unfulfilled. "The house of my glory" referred to in Isaiah lX
is the house of God in Mecca and not the Church of Christ
as thought by Christian commentators. The flocks of Kedar,
as mentioned in verse 7, have never come to the Church of
Christ; and it is a fact that the villages of Kedar and their
inhabitants are the only people in the whole world who have
remained impenetrable to any influence of the Church of
Christ. Again, the mention of 10,000 saints in Deutero-
nomy xxx 3 is very significant. He (God) shined forth
from Paran, and he came with 10,000 of saints. Read the
whole history of the wilderness of Paran and you will find
no other event but when Mecca was conquered by the
Prophet. He comes with 10,000 followers from Medina and
re-enters "the house of my glory." He gives the fiery law
to the world, which reduced to ashes all other laws. The
Comforter - the Spirit of Truth - spoken of by Prophet Jesus was
no other than Prophet Muhammad himself. It cannot be taken as
the Holy Ghost, as the Church theology says. "It is expe-
dient for you that I go away," says Jesus, "for if I go not
away the Comforter will not come unto you, but if I depart
I will send him unto you." The words clearly show that the
Comforter had to come after the departure of Jesus, and was
not with him when he uttered these words. Are we to pre-
sume that Jesus was devoid of the Holy Ghost if his coming
was conditional on the going of Jesus: besides, the way in
which Jesus describes him makes him a human being, not a
ghost. "He shall not speak of himself, but whatsoever he
shall hear that he shall speak." Should we presume that the
Holy Ghost and God are two distinct entities and that the
Holy Ghost speaks of himself and also what he hears from
God? The words of Jesus clearly refer to some messenger
from God. He calls him the Spirit of Truth, and so the
Qur'an speaks of Prophet Muhammad, "No, indeed, he has
brought the truth, and confirmed the Messengers." Ch.37:37
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