Prophethood and Revelation

first: the witness of the scriptures

the torah and the gospels foretold the mission of prophet muhammad (saws) both explicitly and implicitly.

in numbers, bilaam, the son of boer, said: “there shall be a star that appears from among the family of ishmael and its support a family of the arabs; the earth shall shake for its appearance.” al muhtadi al iskandrani commented: “the only person who appeared from the family of ishmael was muhammad (saws) and he was also the only person because of whose appearance the earth shaked. really, he was the star of the family of ishmael and the person whose mission changed the face of the earth. with his birth, satans were forbidden from eavesdropping the news of the heavens; the sacred fire of persia was extinguished; the babel idols fell down; and his followers demolished the unjust regimes.” (1)

the above text of the numbers was later slanted in modern versions to be: “there shall come a star out of jacob, and a sceptre shall rise out of israel, and shall smite the corners of moab, and destroy all the children of sheth.” (24:17) (2)

the latin version of this text is as follows: “stella ex iacob et consurget virga de israhel et percutiet duces moab vastabitque omnes filios seth.”

in the fifteenth chapter from his gospel, john said that isa (as) said that: “but when the comforter (it is also called the ‘paraclete’; in greek it is ‘parakliton’ and in latin it is ‘advocatus.’) is come, whom i will send unto you from the father, even the spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the father, he shall testify of me.” (15:26) john also said in the sixteenth chapter: “nevertheless i tell you the truth; it is expedient for you that i go away: for if i go not away, the comforter will not come unto you; but if i depart, i will send him unto you. and when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.” (16:7-8) (4)

in the gospel of barnabas, isa (as) said: “god shall take me up from the earth, and shall change the appearance of the traitor so that every one shall believe him to be me; nevertheless, when he dies an evil death, i shall abide in that dishonour for a long time in the world. but when muhammad shall come, the sacred messenger of god, that infamy shall be taken away." (5)

prominent jewish and christian scholars, such the rabbi abdullah bin sallam and warqa bin nawfal, witnessed to the prophethood of prophet muhammad (saws). they would be an argument against all jews and christians until the day of judgment.

many of modern thinkers and scholars admitted the prophethood of prophet muhammad (saws). some examples are the following:

the american writer washington irving (1783–1859) said: “muhammad (saws) was the last and greatest prophet allah has sent to call people to allah’s worship.” (6)

marcel boizar proves the prophethood of muhammad (saws) in a rational and scientific way. he eloquently said: “since prophet muhammad (saws) settled in madinah his life became an integral part of islamic history. his actions were transmitted to us in the minutest detail. as he was an energetic organizer, he proved his ability to defend the embryonic islamic society and propagate his call. in spite of his power to fight and punish, he used to forgive. however, he did not relent with the enemies of the religion. it seems that the three merits of the prophet (saws), that is, devoutness, fighting, and forgiveness impacted the islamic society during its early emergence and embodied the spiritual atmosphere of islam.

“history depicts muhammad (saws) both as a great leader whose heart is full of mercy as well as a man of state par excellence who was firm and had a wise policy that dealt with all on equal footing and gave each his right. through his diplomacy and fairness he was able to grasp the recognition for the emerging islamic group through treaties at the time he was starting to defeat his enemies in the battlefield. if we are to remember the fragile power of any arab leader on the psychological domain at the time and the virtues he was supposed to have, we would conclude that muhammad (saws), who knew how to obtain the satisfaction of the widest domain of people, was really above the human level and that he must have been a real prophet of allah.” (7)

emile dermenghem used the event of the death of ibrahim, the prophet’s (saws) son, to prove the prophethood of the prophet (saws). he said: “muhammad (saws) had a son called ibrahim from mary the coptic but this boy died in infancy. the prophet (saws) was really sad at heart. he buried ibrahim by his own hands and cried on him. on the day of ibrahim’s death, it happened that the sun eclipsed and muslims said that it eclipsed for the death of ibrahim. the prophet (saws) was lofty enough to say that ‘the sun and the moon do not eclipse because of the death or life (i.e. birth) of someone but they are two signs amongst the signs of allah.’”( sahih al-bukhari: volume 2)such a statement would not be of a lying imposter. (9)

4) leitner (10)

(gottlieb wilhelm leitner, or gottlieb william leitner.(14 october 1840 - 22 march 1899) was an anglo-hungarian orientalist.)

leitner said: “as far as i know about judaism and christianity, i would say that the instructions of muhammad (saws) were not plagiarism of either. without doubt he received revelation from very close to allah the ever-mighty, the ever-knowing. i say that certainly from among the proofs of his prophethood are self-sacrifice, honesty of objective, firm belief in the heart, insight into the way to deal with sin and going astray and the use of the best media to overcome them.” (11)

the italian writer luravicia vaghlreiy said: “driven by blind envy, the fiercest enemies of islam tried to falsely accuse the prophet of allah (saws) and they forgot that before he received revelation, prophet muhammad (saws) was respected among his people for his honesty and purity of life. it is strange that those accusers do not even try to ask themselves how could prophet muhammad (saws) be able to threaten the liars and the hypocrites of eternal hellfire as mentioned in some of the ayahs of the qur