بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ ,

The Qur’aan states:

“Those who will obey this Noble Messenger (Prophet Mohammed – peace and blessings be upon him), the Herald of the Hidden who is untutored (except by Allah), whom they will find mentioned in the Taurat and the Injeel with them; he will command them to do good and forbid them from wrong, and he will make lawful for them the good clean things and prohibit the foul for them, and he will unburden the loads and the neck chains which were upon them; so those who believe in him, and revere him, and help him, and follow the light which came down with him – it is they who have succeeded.” – 7:157.

The Problems with Understanding this Verse:

1. The Torah and Injeel no longer exist (with us) in their original forms.
2. The Qur’aan does not specify the group from amongst the Christians and Jews, with whom their version of the Torah and Injeel mention the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him).
3. The Qur’aan does not mention in which form he is described – is it by name, height, race, faith, geography etc?
4. The claim of the Qur’aan is that he is mentioned and if we can find one Christian, just one, who acknowledges directly that perhaps he is, in some way or the other – then the Qur’aan’s case is true.

The Solutions to Develop Understanding:

1. Whether or not they are in their original forms, Allaah’s hikmah (wisdom), is such that He has mentioned that the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) is mentioned in their scriptures and because of this, despite their tampering, canonical controversies and emendations, we will still be able – in some way or the other to find some form of mention about him or the message he was to bring.
2. Following from the above point, we must confess that perhaps not all renditions of the Bible would convey an accurate mentioning of him, for when we look at the nature and person of Christ in the various writings of the early Christian Churches/ Messianic movements in the Panarion of Epiphanius of Salamis – they are quite contradictory and uncertain. Therefore we must assume that some renditions of the Bible would according to their perception of the one to follow the Christ, either demonize him on one extreme or deify him on another extreme. We see that Christians today do claim that Islam is of Satan and justify this by using Biblical verses, thus implicitly although not ideally;, verifying the Qur’aan’s claim.
3. The final point to note is that because of the various groups and their renditions of the Prophets, whether it be as warriors as is in Judaism or Spirits and Gods as in Christianity, the multitude of ways the Prophet (peace be upon him) could have been mentioned are endless.
4. I’ve provided this further below, for now however, let’s see one example of his being mentioned.

Is Muhammad (peace be upon him) mentioned in the Gospels?

I’d say he is strongly referred to in the Gospel attributed to John.  Let’s begin with out narrative as is taken from the Gospel itself:

By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified. – John 7:39.

According to this verse, we know that a Spirit is to come later and this cannot be the Holy Spirit which was already known to all:

Then John gave this testimony: “I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him. – John 1:32.

The verse qualifies this by saying, “Jesus had not yet been glorified“, which is strange, since in many early chapters of John, Jesus was indeed glorified:

We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. – John 1:14.

What Jesus did here in Cana of Galilee was the first of the signs through which he revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him. – John 2:11.

So what does Jesus mean by saying after the Spirit who is to come, arrives, that at this point he’d then be glorified? Jesus gives an answer to this, he says:

“I do not accept glory from human beings” – John 5:41.

So who does Jesus expect this glory from?

How can you believe since you accept glory from one another but do not seek the glory that comes from the only God? – John 5:44.

Jesus replied, “If I glorify myself, my glory means nothing. My Father, whom you claim as your God, is the one who glorifies me. – John 8:54.

How will God glorify the Christ?

“Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. And then all the peoples of the earth will mourn when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory. – Matthew 24:30.

Both Muslims and Christians believe that Christ will return as a ruler over the earth, and it is at this point that his glory will be realised, but why at this point? It is because he will rule over the one who is mentioned in John 7:39, he will rule according to the message of the Spirit of John 7:39! Let’s take a quick reminder of what the verse says:

By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified. – John 7:39.

In order for the Christ to be glorified by God, the Spirit who is to come later, must arrive first and then Christ would be glorified by God in a way which the believers of the Spirit would come to see (Matthew 24:30). The disciples were to believe in a Spirit which was yet to come, or be seen by them:

The Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. – John 14:17.

The world won’t know him, because they can’t see him, and it is only those whom the are the true believers of God, they will be able to know him. If we recall from the Seerah of Muhammad (peace be upon him), a few select Jews and Christians did recognize him, but the believers who understood Jesus’ true message and allowed it to remain intact, free from all external influences, did recognize the Spirit to come. Moving on, Christ did give another piece of advice on recognizing the Spirit to come:

“When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father—the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father—he will testify about me. – John 15:26.

The only Prophet after Christ to testify about Christ’s position as a Messiah and Prophet of God, is Muhammad (peace be upon him). As John 14:17 rightly claims, most of those who claim to follow Christ will not know him, but those who have internalized Christ’s authentic message – forthwith recognize who the Spirit is, thus fulfilling Christ’s prophecy. Christ continues to describe this Spirit to us:

“But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.” – John 16:13.

The Spirit to come will testify about Christ, but according to this verse, he’d also testify the truth about all things, which if I’m not mistaken – includes Christ. Why would the Spirit to come testify the truth about Christ if it were already known? Certainly Muhammad (peace be upon him) has testified that the Christ was ‘Aissa ibn Maryam (may Allaah be pleased with him), he testified that the Christ was a Prophet and he testified the truth about Maryam (may Allaah be pleased with her). He spoke the truth about Christ and spoke the truth about those who perverted Christ’s message. The verse also says that he will not speak of his own accord:

“And he does not say anything by his own desire. It is but a divine revelation, which is revealed to him. He has been taught by the Extremely Powerful.” – Qur’aan 53:3-5.

Lastly, the the final portion of John 16:13 mentions that, “he will tell you what is yet to come”. The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) is the only Abrahamic Prophet to describe the afterlife in great detail, the Qur’aan itself in the very first chapter addresses God – the only true God, of being the ‘Master of the Day of Judgment’. The Prophet (peace be upon him) went into great detail as to what the judgement would be like, what happens at death and what happens on the Day of Judgement itself and the pleasures/ punishments to follow thereafter.

Is Muhammad (peace be upon him) mentioned in the Old Testament?

Islam literally means, ‘to gain peace in submitting to God’. If I wanted to describe a baby, I would say, ‘the human which has just exited its mother’s womb’. Similarly we find that Islam is expressed in such a way in Job 22:21, for it reads:

“Submit to God and be at peace with him; in this way prosperity will come to you.” – Job 22:21.

This verse in no uncertain terms has mentioned that we should follow Islam. Let’s see what one Bible commentary states about this verse:

We find the above to be quite revealing, for even Biblical commentators accept that Islam is the faith which is to be followed. You can see it yourself here in Gesenius’s Lexicon. I think the best part of this quote is where it says, ‘hence true religion, meaning Mahometanism‘. From this, even Christians scholars accept that Muhammad (peace be upon him) is mentioned in some way in the Bible, thus qualifying the Qur’aan’s claim from 7:157.

Lastly, we read:

 I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him. – Deuteronomy 18:18.

The word for brethren is אֲחֵיהֶ֖ם, which means ‘brother, cousin, relative, kinsman, reciprocal relationship‘, with certainty we know that the Arabs are the kinsman, the brothers to, the cousins of, the relatives with and the relatives of the Israelites through Ishamael (may God be pleased with him).

Conclusion

The evidence is quite overwhelming, despite the hoops through which Missionaries may jump, they cannot hide the truth of Muhammad (peace be upon him) before foretold of by Christ and in their Prophets.

wa Allaahu ‘Alam.