Part I, Chapter I

From Adam to the Messiah

All of the prophets had the same mission. They taught that man’s life on earth was just a part of his eternal life. In this world he was being tested; in the next world he would be rewarded for his efforts. Man had just a short time on earth. Afterwards he would take up his eternal abode, in heaven, if he had followed the way of the Lord; or in hell, if he had strayed from it. This was the reality of life that they taught.

Adam was the first man on earth; he was also the first prophet. He was succeeded by a long line of prophets, up to the Messiah. Altogether there were 124,000 messengers of God, of whom 315 were prophets. They appeared in different lands and among different peoples, preaching the word of God and exhorting men to live in fear of Him. But very few of those they addressed were willing to give up their freedom for the sake of God. No one, for instance, followed the Prophet Yahya (John the Baptist) and he died a martyr’s death. When Lot left his people only two of his daughters accompanied him. According to the Old Testament, only eight people entered the ark along with Noah. When Abraham left his native country, Iraq, the only people to accompany him were his wife Sarah and his nephew Lot. They were later joined by his two sons, Ishmael and Isaac. After great missionary effort on the part of Jesus, only twelve of those who heard his teachings followed him, and even they forsook him at the moment of truth.

(Matthew, 26:25)

This was the case with most of the prophets. Some were left completely alone, whilst others found a few followers, mostly members of their own families. For them, ties of kith and kin were conducive to belief in the prophets. This verse of the Quran sums up the whole of prophetic history:

Alas for the servants! They laugh to scorn every prophet that comes to them. (36:30)

In God’s sight, the prophets stand head and shoulders above the human race. How extraordinary it is, then, that they are the very ones to whom the least historical importance has been attached. History has fully chronicled the lives of kings and soldiers, but not one single prophet’s life has been given its due place in the annals of history. Aristotle (384-322 BC) was born one thousand years after the Prophet Moses, yet he was not even acquainted with Moses’ name. The reason is not far to seek: most of the prophets were rejected by their peoples: their homes were demolished; they were treated as outcasts from society; they appeared so unimportant that no one deemed it necessary to even make any mention of them.

Why were the prophets treated in this manner? There was just one reason for this, and that was their criticism of their peoples’ practices. Man loves nothing more than that he should be praised; and he loathes nothing more than that he should be criticised, the prophets came to expose the difference between right and wrong; they made no compromise with their peoples; they persistently pointed out the faults in people’s beliefs and actions. Consequently, people turned against them. If the prophets had taught what people wanted to hear, they would never have been treated in this manner.

This was the fate of most of the prophets. A few of them, however, were spared, Joseph, Solomon and David being names that immediately spring to mind. But the power and prestige that these prophets acquired was not due to the popularity of their teachings; they had an entirely separate origin.

David was a young soldier in the army of the Israelites under King Saul. During his time the Israelites and Philistines went to war with each other. Among the army of Philistines was the giant Goliath. So powerful a fighter was he that everyone was afraid of doing battle with him. King Saul announced that he would give his daughter in marriage to anyone who slew Goliath. David challenged the giant, and killed him. So he became the son-in-law of the King of Israel. In a subsequent war both King Saul and his heir—apparent were killed in battle, and David was crowned King of Israel. Solomon was David’s son, and succeeded to his father’s throne. As for Joseph, he was endowed by God with the ability to interpret dream. The King of Egypt, impressed by his ability, entrusted the affairs of state to him. But the king still remained head of state. He and his subjects continued to adhere to their pagan religion.

This hostile treatment meted out to the prophets throughout the ages, deprived people of true guidance and, what was even more serious, made the preservation of the scriptures and teachings of the prophets impossible. Only a prophet’s followers can preserve his teachings after him; but the prophets either had no followers, or so few as to be unable to counter the challenges of their society to the preservation of the Holy Scriptures.

The knowledge of God is eternal. He sees the future just as He does the past. He was aware, before the sending of the prophets, that this would be the fate of the human race. So He had decreed that He would remedy this situation at the end of the prophetic era by sending His own special envoy to the world: a prophet whose job would be not only to preach religion, but also to exalt it above all others on earth, he would be granted special succour from God, enabling him to compel his people to bow to the truth. God would keep him on earth until he had rectified the perversions of the society around him. God’s own might would assist the Prophet to vanquish his enemies. In this way the true religion would be established on solid foundations facilitating the preservation of the God. In the Book of the Bible, “for the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of God, as the waters cover the sea.”

(Habakkuk, 2:14)

Translations and additions have taken the present-day Bible very far from the original. But it still contains multiple references to the coming of the Prophet Mohammad. If one studies the Bible objectively, one will find certain references that cannot be applied to any other than to him. The very purpose of the mission of the Prophet Jesus was to announce to the world, and to the Jewish nation in particular, the coming of the final prophet. The “New Testament” to which he referred was, in truth, Islam, for it marked the replacement of the Jews by the Children of Ishmael as recipients of the word of God. They were the ones to whom the New Testament was to be delivered. The Injil is a prophecy of the New Testament; it is not the New Testament itself.

The Prophet Jesus came to the world six hundred years before the last of the Prophets. In one reference to Jesus, the Quran has this to say:

And remember the Prophet Jesus, who said to the Children of Israel: “I am sent forth to you by God to confirm the Torah already revealed and to give news of an apostle that will come after me whose name is Ahmad.” (Quran, 61:6)

The words “Ahmad” and “Mohammad” have the same meaning: the praised one. In the Gospel of Barnabas the name of the coming prophet is given quite clearly as Mohammad. But since the Christians consider the Gospel of Barnabas to be apocryphal, we do not consider it fit to quote from that source. We cannot even be sure whether Jesus, in his prophecy, referred to Ahmad or Mohammad. Most probably he used a word with the same meaning as these names.

According to the tradition of the historian Mohammad Ibn Ishaq (died 152 AH), quoted by Ibn Hisham in his biography of the Prophet, the word that Jesus used was “Munhamann”. Ibn Ishaq is considered the most authentic source on the subject of the Prophet’s life. He writes that he had learnt from scholars of the Scriptures that the word used by Jesus in his prophecy of a coming prophet was Munhamann. (Tahzeeb Seerat lbn Hisham, Vol. I, p. 500)

This tradition probably reached him by way of Palestinian Christians who had come under Islamic rule. Munhamann is a Syrian word. It means the praised one. The people of Palestine, harking back to their past, still spoke the Syrian tongue. It had also been Jesus’ mother tongue. It is quite conceivable that the word used by Jesus was Munhamann, and the word had been preserved in their traditions. When the Bible was translated into Greek, the word became “Paraclete.” □

Not even martyrdom can
exonerate one from debts

The Prophet gave a sermon in which he extolled the struggle for the cause of God and faith in Him as the most virtuous of actions. A man rose, and asked the Prophet the meaning of what he was saying. “If I die for the cause of God, will I be cleansed of my sins?” “Yes,” “the Prophet replied,” as long as you remain steadfast, and are killed while struggling for the cause of God; as long as you are seeking to please God, and are pressing on, not falling back.” The Prophet paused for a minute. “What was it that you said?” he asked. “I asked the meaning of your words,” the man said. “If I die for the cause of God, then will I be cleansed of my sins?” “Yes,” the Prophet replied. “As long as you remain steadfast, are seeking to please God, and are pressing on, not falling back; unless, that is, you are in debt. The angel, Gabriel, has informed me of this.”