THE PROMISED PROPHET

PROPHET AFTER A PROPHET

How does God communicate with people? It is through Prophets. A biblical author once have said, Long ago God spoke to our ancestor in many and various ways by the prophets. (The Bible, NRSV, Hebrews 1:1) So, a prophet is someone who is elected by God to receive His revelation which is the divine message. A prophet is that elected one who leads his community to worship God alone and to keep the moral values. It is known to those who read the Old Testament that whenever God sends a prophet to the Children of Israel, they disobey him whether during his lifetime or after. So, whenever the Prophetic message is omitted or distorted, God sends another Prophet to renew the message. That is why we find that there were thousands of Prophets who were sent.
THE CAVE

Seven centuries before Jesus, Isaiah the Prophet prophesied about a Prophet that was to come. Isaiah described how that Prophet would receive his message: And the book is delivered to him that is not learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I am not learned. (Isaiah 29:12) Six centuries after Jesus, this prophecy was fulfilled. In 610 CE, Muhammad was worshipping the One God, the God of Abraham, just out side of the Arabian city of Mecca. There the Prophet Muhammad was visited by the angel of the Lord who asked him to read. The Prophet answered, I am not learned. The angel of the Lord asked him thrice and Muhammad answered the same. Then the angel embraced Muhammad and at that moment all time and space was removed. The first words of the Holy Quran were then revealed to the Prophet Muhammad: "Read in the name of your Lord who created- Created man from a clinging substance. Read, and your Lord is the most Generous Who taught by the pen Taught man that which he knew not." (The Holy Quran 96:1-5) This fact of the prophethood of Muhammad can not be omitted by the most learnt, educated and honest of Christians. During the third Anglican Mission Congress in Canada, Canon Worn, who was a Christian evangelist and scholar, declared to all the evangelists: God has revealed Himself in diverse manners. We should be bold enough to insist that God was speaking in that cave in the hills outside Mecca. 1 Canon Worn is not alone in this admission. Another Christian scholar and minister Reverend Bosworth Smith, declared that the
1

Peter Whiteley, Frontier Mission: An account of Toronto Congress, p.18.

Prophet Muhammad ruled by a right divine. He said in 'Muhammad and Muhammadanism,' London, 1874:

Head of the State as well as the Church, he was Caesar and Pope in one; but he was Pope without the Pope's pretensions, and Caesar without the legions of Caesar, without a standing army, without a bodyguard, without a police force, without a fixed revenue. If ever a man ruled by a right divine, it was Muhammad, for he had all the powers without their supports. He cared not for the dressings of power. The simplicity of his private life was in keeping with his public life.

Many other Christian scholars and ministers recognized the truthfulness of the Prophet Muhammad and they joined him and became Muslims. Among them was the Catholic Bishop David Benjamin; he wrote:
My conversion to Islam cannot be attributed to any cause other than the gracious direction of Almighty God. Without this Divine guidance, all learning, searching and other efforts to find the truth may even lead one astray. The moment I believed in the Absolute Unity of God, His Holy Apostle Muhammad became the pattern of my conduct and behaviour. . . . I must remind the Christians that unless they believe in the absolute unity of God, and renounce the belief in the three persons, they are certainly unbelievers in the true God . . . The Old Testament and the Qur`an condemn the doctrine of three persons in God; the New Testament does not expressly hold or defend it, but even if it contains hints and traces concerning the Trinity, it is no authority at all, because it was neither seen nor written by Christ himself, nor in the language he spoke, not did it exist in its present form and contents for at least- the first two centuries after him.

Bishop David Benjamin (a.k.a. Abdul-Ahad Dawood) wrote many books about Islam. One of those books is known in the Muslim world, Muhammad in the Bible. An excellent read. Here is another Christian minister and church leader who became Muslim, Pastor Kenneth L. Jenkins, minister and elder of the Pentecostal Church; he said:
As a Bible student, I knew full well that there were mistakes, contradictions and fabrications. I thought that people should be exposed to the truth about the Bible. The idea of exposing the people to such aspects of the Bible was a thought supposedly attributable to Satan. But I began to publicly ask my teachers questions during Bible classes, which none of them could answer. Not a single one could explain how Jesus was supposedly God, and how, at the same time, he was supposedly the Father, Son and Holy Ghost wrapped up into one and yet was not a part of the trinity. Several preachers finally

had to concede that they did not understand it but that we were simply required to believe it. Cases of adultery and fornication went unpunished. Some preachers were hooked on drugs and had destroyed their lives and the lives of their families. Leaders of some churches were found to be homosexuals. There were pastors even guilty of committing adultery with the young daughters of other church members. All of this coupled with a failure to receive answers to what I thought were valid questions was enough to make me seek a change ...I was amazed with the life of Prophet Muhammad and wanted to know more. I requested books from one of the brothers who was active in calling people to Islam. I was supplied with all of the books that I could possibly want. I read each and every one. I was then given the Holy Qur'an and read it completely several times within four months. I asked question after question and received satisfactory answers . . . I was then given a video cassette of a debate between Shaykh Ahmed Deedat and Reverend Jimmy Swaggart. After seeing the debate I immediately became a Muslim.

We, today, have much of different Christian churches and it is impossible to get the original teachings of Jesus except by a Prophet sent by God. A Prophet that has similar character of those Hebrew Prophets whom we read about in the Old Testament. That Prophet indeed is Muhammad. One of the most famous writer in the West today is the former Catholic nun Karen Armstrong; she said: We shall see that Muhammads spiritual experience bears an arresting similarity to that of the prophets of Israel . . . 2 Thus the Prophet Muhammad taught people to reject idols and to worship one God alone, the Lord of Abraham. He taught them also morality and good character. Sir Lauder Brunton who was educated at Oxford University and was an English Baronet and a man of wide repute, wrote about his conversion to Islam; he said:
I am deeply grateful for this opportunity of saying a few words as to why I embraced Islam. I was reared under the influence of Christian parents. At an early age I became interested in theology. I associated myself with the Church of England, and took an interest in Mission work without an actual active part in it . . . An earnest desire to worship and serve the True God grew in me. The creeds of Christianity claim to be founded on the Bible, but I found these to be conflicting. Is it possible that Bible and teaching of Jesus Christ had been misrepresented? So, I turned my attention again to the Bible and determined to make a careful study, and I felt that there was something wanting . . . I eventually took
2

The introduction of Karen Armstrong, Muhammad: A Biography of a Prophet, 1998.

up the study of the life of Prophet Muhammad. I knew very little of what he did, but I knew and felt that the Christians with one voice condemned the celebrated Prophet of Arabia. I was now determined to look into the matter without the spectacles of bigotry and malice. After a little time I found that it was impossible to doubt the earnestness of his search after Truth and God. I felt that it is wrong, in the extreme, to condemn this Holy Man after reading his great achievements for humanity. People who were wild idol-worshippers, living on crime, filth and nakedness, he taught them how to dress, filth was replaced by cleanliness, and they acquired personal dignity and self-respect, hospitality became a religious duty, their idols were destroyed and they worship the True and only one God. Islam became the most powerful Total Abstinence Association in the world. And many other good works were accomplished which are too numerous to be mentioned. In the face of all this and his own purity of mind, how sad to think that such a Holy Messenger of God should be run down by the Christians . . . I concluded in favour of Islam, feeling convinced of its truth, simplicity, toleration, sincerity and brotherhood.

THE LAST THREE PROPHETS

In the first century CE, the Jews were awaiting three promised men. The Jews had prophecies that predicted their coming as the last three prophets who would be sent. When John the Baptist started his mission, the Jews came and asked him: Who art thou? And he confessed, and denied not; but confessed, I am not the Christ. And they asked him, What then? Art thou Elias? And he saith, I am not. Art thou that prophet? And he answered, No. (The Bible, John 1:19-21) The coming three prophets were: 1) The Christ. 2) Elias. 3) That Prophet. According to Matthew 17:12-13 Jesus testified that Elias is John the Baptist himself: But I [Jesus] say unto you, That Elias is come already, and they knew him not, but have done unto him whatsoever they listed. Likewise shall also the Son of man suffer of them.Then the disciples understood that he spake unto them of John the Baptist. The Prophet Elias already had come hundreds of years before Jesus (Read the first book of kings in the Bible, chapters 17-21) but

here Jesus was referring to Elias successor. The Prophet John the Baptist (the successor of Elias) was the first of the three prophets named. The second one was the Christ who certainly was the Prophet Jesus. The remaining one is the last of three who was known as that Prophet. That Prophet is an awaited Prophet and his coming definitely will be after Jesus, the Christ, as well as after John the Baptist. So, According to the history and Bible record, the result will be: 1) John the Baptist (Elias successor). 2) Jesus (the Christ) who was sent after John the Baptist. 3) That Prophet who will be sent after Jesus.
GODS PROMISE TO MOSES

Who was that Prophet? To know him requires a bit of research. First of all, one should consider why the Jews used the word THAT. When an important person is described and spoken of, he is often referred to as that person or that man. God had promised the Children of Israel that He would send them one great prophet and gave them some information about him. At the time, the Jews were expecting, after the Christ and Elias, one important prophet, and they mentioned him frequently, calling him that Prophet. The Jews were awaiting the fulfillment of Gods promise to Moses of that Prophet: 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. (The Bible, NIV, Deuteronomy 18:18) Among their brethren means that that Prophet would be sent among the brethren of the Children of Israel but not among the Children of Israel themselves. Their brethren are the Ishmaelites (Arabs), for Ishmael was the son of Abraham and the descendants of Ishmael (Arabs) are called brethren of the descendants of Isaac (the Children of Israel). That Prophet would accordingly be an Ishmaelite prophet, sent among the Arab tribes (the brethren of the Children of Israel). The second point made in Gods promise to Moses about "that Prophet" is that He says, like unto thee (The Bible, Deuteronomy 18:18), meaning that the expected prophet would be like Moses. Just as Moses was a prophet who emigrated, led his people and conveyed the Law of God, so was the Arab prophet, Muhammad (blessings and peace be upon him). His people (the Arabs), like the Children of Israel at the time of Moses, low in status, without a nation or a civilization. Prophet Muhammad united them as Moses did with his people. He made them a great nation as Moses did with his people. And he brought them guidance and legislation from God as Moses did with his people. The American psychoanalyst, Jules Masserman said in Time Magazine, July 15, 1974, in an article titled Who Were History's Great Leaders?:
Leaders must fulfill three functions:

1) Provide for the well being of the led, 2) Provide a social organization in which people feel relatively secure, and 3) Provide them with a set of beliefs. People like Pasteur and Salk are leaders in the first sense. People like Gandhi and Confucius, on one hand, and Alexander and Caesar on the other, are leaders in the second and perhaps the third sense. Jesus and Buddha belong in the third category alone. Perhaps the greatest leader of all time was Muhammad, who combined all three functions. To a lesser degree, Moses did the same.

Let me tell you that not only Mr. Masserman declared it! May you would not believe if I told you a Christian scholar has also admitted it! It is there in Collins Dictionary of the Bible! It states:
The only man of history who can be compared even remotely to him [Moses] is Mahomet [i.e. Muhammed]
DEFENDERS AMONG HIS ENEMIES!

It is really a brave statement made by Jules Masserman! Is not amazing that a man like Mr. Masserman in a society which they are trained to hate the Prophet Muhammad to declare such announcement? Some would argue what did the West do against the great teacher Muhammad ? I will not answer, but I will let the eminent and famous English writer Thomas Carlyle to answer this question! Thomas Carlyle said in 'Heroes and Hero Worship and the Heroic in History,' 1840:
"The lies [Western slander] which well-meaning zeal has heaped round this man [Muhammad] are disgraceful to ourselves only."

Here are another Western historian author W. Montgomery Watt who admired of the great personality of the Prophet Muhammad and yet he realizes the problem of ignoring him. In his 'Muhammad at Mecca,' Oxford, 1953, he defends by saying:
His readiness to undergo persecution for his beliefs, the high moral character of the men who believed in him and looked up to him as a leader, and the greatness of his ultimate achievement - all argue his fundamental integrity. To suppose Muhammad an impostor raises more problems that it solves. Moreover, none of the great figures of history is so poorly appreciated in the West as Muhammad ... Thus, not merely must we credit Muhammad with essential honesty and integrity of purpose, if we are to understand him at all; if we are to correct the errors we have inherited from the past, we must not forget the conclusive proof is a much stricter requirement than a show of plausibility, and in a matter such as this only to be attained with difficulty.

Look at the one of the most well-known writers in the circles of the educated Westerners, the Irish Sir George Bernard Shaw, what he said for the Prophet Muhammad ! When it was circulated in his time a Western jealousy saying that the Prophet Muhammad is an anti-Christ, Mr. Shaw ragingly said:
I have always held the religion of Muhammad in high estimation because of its wonderful vitality. It is the only religion which appears to me to possess that assimilating capacity to the changing phase of existence which can make itself appeal to every age. I have studied him - the wonderful man and in my opinion far from being an antiChrist, he must be called the Savior of Humanity.

One of the most famous writer in the West today is the former Catholic nun Karen Armstrong. She explained why the West had that jealousy to the Prophet Muhammad and how the Western propaganda was established against him; she said:
When the Muslim empire was established in the seventh century CE, Europe was a backward region. Islam had quickly overrun much of the Christian world of the Middle East as well as the great Church of North Africa, which had been of crucial importance to the Church of Rome. This brilliant success was threatening: had God deserted the Christians and bestowed his favour on the infidel? . . . At the same time as they [i.e. Western Christians] weaving fearful fantasies about Jews, they were also evolving a distorted image of Islam, which reflected their own buried anxieties. Western scholars denounced Islam as a blasphemous faith and its Prophet Muhammad as the Great Pretender, who had founded a violent religion of the sword in order to conquer the world. Mahomet became a bogy to the people of Europe, used by mothers to frighten disobedient children. In Mummers plays he was presented as the enemy of Western civilisation, who fought our own brave St George. This inaccurate image of Islam became one of the received ideas of Europe and it continues to affect our perceptions of the Muslim world . . . To put Islam into an unholy category of its own or to assume that its influence has been wholly or even predominantly negative is both inaccurate and unjust, it is betrayal of the tolerance and compassion that are supposed to characterise Western society. In fact Islam shares many of the ideals and visions that have inspired both Judaism and Christianity. Consequently it has helped people to cultivate values that it shares with our own culture. The Judaeo-Christian tradition does not have the monopoly on either monotheism or concern for justice, decency, compassion and respect for humanity. Indeed, the Muslim interpretation of the monotheistic faith has its own special genius and has important things to teach us. . . We shall

see that Muhammads spiritual experience bears an arresting similarity to that of the prophets of Israel . . . 3
ADMIRERS AMONG HIS ENEMIES!

Every follower exalts and reveres his leader. If a French admires and exalts Napoleon, it would be normal! If a Christian admires and exalts Jesus, it would be normal! If a Jew admires and exalts Moses, it would be normal! If a Muslim admires and exalts Muhammad , it would be normal! The lover always adore his beloved one. But when an enemy or a neutral person admires and reveres his opponent or a person has no link to him, it would be something else! It would be fair and just suggestion! It would be an authentic certificate and right testimony! When a Westerner, either a Christian or Secular, is born in a society, which inherited its hatred upon the Eastern Arabs and looks at them as barbarous infidel enemies and thinks about their Prophet as a Great Pretender, and yet that Westerner holds the ultimate sublimity of admiration for the Prophet Muhammad , it would be something strange, amazing and fascinating! It is striking words, as an example, which came out the mouth of the French historian Alphonse de LaMartaine; he said in his 'Historie de la Turquie,' Paris, 1854:
If greatness of purpose, smallness of means, and astonishing results are the three criteria of a human genius, who could dare compare any great man in history with Muhammad? . . . Philosopher, Orator, Apostle, Legislator, Conqueror of Ideas, Restorer of Rational beliefs . . . The founder of twenty terrestrial empires and of one spiritual empire that is Muhammad. As regards all standards by which human greatness may be measured, we may well ask, is there any man greater than he?

What does make a Western highly educated person like Mr. LeMartaine to say such serious challenge of his absolute impression of admiration towards the Prophet Muhammad ? Was Mr. LeMartaine an Arab, Muslim or foolish ignorant who just wants to make flattery for fun? No! He was one of the most educated literary Westerners! Remember! He is a French historian who knew exactly what greatness does mean! He was a man who has the experience of men. Then why did he say that? The answer is simple! He just has read about the life of the Prophet Muhammad . He found his heart pulled him to that great man whom he compared with other men but he did not find any comparable with him; as another Western historian J. W. H. Stab, who asked in his writing 'Islam and its Founder' for the Prophet Muhammad , Judged by the standards to human renown, the glory of what mortal can compare with his?
3

The introduction of Karen Armstrong, Muhammad: A Biography of the Prophet, Harper Collins Publishers, 1998.

Any one who reads about Muhammad would feel same as Alphonse de LaMartaine has felt but with eternal and forever feeling as another known French historian Annie Besant who described that feeling in her 'The Life and Teachings of Mohammad,' 1932:
It is impossible for anyone who studies the life and character of the great Prophet of Arabia, who knew how he taught and how he lived, to feel anything but reverence for that mighty Prophet, one of the great messengers of the Supreme. And although in what I put to you I shall say many things which may be familiar to many, yet I myself feel, whenever I reread them, a new way of admiration, a new sense of reverence for that mighty Arabian teacher.

What amazing man that was Muhammad ! As he held all shine of glory, he never been proud or arrogant rather he was the humblest man whom the women ever gave birth. Edward Gibbon, who is a kind of bridge that connects the ancient with the modern ages as Carlyle wrote. Edward Gibbon said in his book 'The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire', which is the father-book of all western historical books:
The good sense of Muhammad despised the pomp of royalty. The Apostle of God submitted to the menial offices of the family; he kindled the fire; swept the floor; milked the ewes; and mended with his own hands his shoes and garments. Disdaining the penance and merit of a hermit, he observed without effort of vanity the abstemious diet of an Arab.

Although Gibbon was a Roman Catholic, he did not forget to remark his estimation of the Prophet Muhammads magic of greatness. Can we find any character like him? Look at what was fascinating Gibbon! The same notation was held by a Christian Minister, Reverend Bosworth Smith, who also admired on the Prophet . After he read about the unique Prophet of all ages, he instantly disabled to do any thing but to write his Muhammad and Muhammadanism (1874). You can not imagine what this Reverend have said about this wonderful Prophet? Reverend Smith astonishingly wrote these words:
Head of the State as well as the Church, he was Caesar and Pope in one; but he was Pope without the Pope's pretensions, and Caesar without the legions of Caesar, without a standing army, without a bodyguard, without a police force, without a fixed revenue. If ever a man ruled by a right divine, it was Muhammad, for he had all the powers without their supports. He cared not for the dressings of power. The simplicity of his private life was in keeping with his public life.

Think if you are living during the lifetime of this greatest man and most glorious Prophet ! Think if you ever met him what would happen! To get some glimpse of this wonderful dream you just have to read what the western historian Lane-Poole have said in his Speeches and Table Talk of the Prophet Muhammad:
He was the most faithful protector of those he protected, the sweetest and most agreeable in conversation. Those who saw him were suddenly filled with reverence; those who came near him loved him; they who described him would say, "I have never seen his like either before or after." He was of great taciturnity, but when he spoke it was with emphasis and deliberation, and no one could forget what he said..

What kind of persons would you like to read about? If you like to read about emperors maybe you will read about the greatest one of them like Alexander the Great or Constantine the Great! If you like to read about Prophets, may you will read about the greatest one of them like Abraham, Moses or Jesus! If you like to read about spiritual leaders, may you will read about the greatest one of them like Paul, Buddha or Zoroaster! If you like to read about wise men, may you will read about the greatest one of them like Socrates, Plato or Aristotle! But if you like to read about the greatest one of all in all, you have to read about the Prophet Muhammad ! In each field, in every aspect, in every age, he is Muhammad! Muhammad! Muhammad ! What we say is not flattery but it is plain truth. It is testified by a non-Muslim historian. By A Christian Anglican author, Barnaby Rogerson, who enthusiastically said about the Prophet Muhammad :
Even when viewed in an entirely secular perspective he remains a superhero . . . Only by marrying the best qualities of certain characters from European civilisation a combination, say, of Alexander the Great, Diogenes and Aristotle, or the Emperor Constantine, St Paul and St Francis can you begin to understand the measure of the man. 4

A combination of the greatest persons you JUST/ONLY can BEGIN, START and HAVE A GLIMPSE to understand the measure of the greatest man of all, Muhammad superhero without a comparable.

who was not only a hero but

Barnaby Rogerson, The Prophet Muhammad: A Biography, p.3, (2003).

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