here.<\/a><\/p>\nIt is not a pre-condition of acceptance that a prophet be foretold by an earlier prophet.\u00a0 Moses was a prophet to Pharaoh even though he was not prophesized by anyone before him.\u00a0 Abraham was God\u2019s prophet to Nimrod, yet no one prophesized his coming.\u00a0 Noah, Lot, and others were true prophets of God, yet they were not foretold.\u00a0 The evidence of a prophet\u2019s truth is not limited to old prophecies, but it includes the actual message brought by him, miracles and more.<\/p>\n
Discussing prophecies is a delicate matter. \u00a0It requires sifting through Bible versions and translations, recently discovered manuscripts and searching out Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic words and investigating them.\u00a0 The task becomes especially difficult when: “prior to the printing press (15th century), all copies of Bibles show textual variations.”[3]\u00a0\u00a0This is not an easy subject for lay people.\u00a0 For this reason, the best testimony comes from ancient and modern experts in the area who acknowledged the prophecies.<\/p>\n
We have records of early Jews and Christians, both monks and rabbis, who witnessed that Muhammad was the fulfillment of specific Bible prophecies.\u00a0 The following are some examples of these people.<\/p>\n
The Awaited Prophet<\/h2>\n
Pre-Islam Jews and Christians of Arabia were awaiting a prophet.\u00a0 Before the appearance of Muhammad, Arabia was home to Jews, Christians, and pagan Arabs who, on occasion, went to war with each other.\u00a0 The Jews and Christians would say: “The time has come for the unlettered prophet to appear who will revive the religion of Abraham.\u00a0 We will join his ranks and wage fierce war against you.”\u00a0 When Muhammad actually appeared, some of them believed in him, and some refused.\u00a0 This is why God revealed:<\/p>\n
“And when there came to them a Book [Quran] from God confirming that which was with them \u2013 although before they used to pray for victory against those who disbelieved \u2013 but [then] when there came to them that which they recognized, they disbelieved in it; so the curse of God will be upon the disbelievers.” (Quran 2:89)<\/p>\n
The first witness was Buhaira, the Christian monk, who recognized Muhammad\u2019s prophethood when he was still young and told his uncle:<\/p>\n
“\u2026a great fortune lies before your nephew, so take him home quickly.”[4]<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The second witness was Waraqah ibn Nawfal, a Christian scholar who died soon after a solitary meeting with Muhammad.\u00a0 Waraqah attested Muhammad was the Prophet of his time and received revelation exactly like Moses and Jesus.[5]<\/p>\n
The Jews of Medina were anxiously awaiting the arrival of a prophet.\u00a0 The third and fourth witnesses were their two famous Jewish rabbis, Abdullah ibn Salam and Mukhayriq.[6]<\/p>\n
The sixth and seventh witnesses were also Yemeni Jewish rabbis, Wahb ibn Munabbih, and Ka\u2019b al-Ahbar (d. 656 CE). \u00a0Ka\u2019b found long passages of praise and the description of the Prophet prophesized\u00a0\u00a0by Moses\u00a0in the Bible.[7]<\/p>\n
The Quran states:<\/p>\n
“Is it not a sign to them that the learned men of the Children of Israel knew it (as true)?” (Quran 26:197)<\/p>\n
FOOTNOTES:<\/p>\n
[1]”Bible.” \u00a0Encyclop\u00e6dia Britannica from Encyclop\u00e6dia Britannica Premium Service. (http:\/\/www.britannica.com\/eb\/article-9079096)<\/p>\n
[2]”Aramaic language.” \u00a0Encyclop\u00e6dia Britannica from Encyclop\u00e6dia Britannica Premium Service. (http:\/\/www.britannica.com\/eb\/article-9009190)<\/p>\n
[3]”biblical literature.” \u00a0Encyclop\u00e6dia Britannica from Encyclop\u00e6dia Britannica Premium Service. (http:\/\/www.britannica.com\/eb\/article-73396)<\/p>\n
[4]\u2018Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources\u2019 by Martin Lings, p. 29. \u2018Sirat Rasul Allah\u2019 by Ibn Ishaq translated by A. Guillame, p. 79-81. \u2018The Quran And The Gospels: A Comparative Study,\u2019 p. 46 by Dr. Muhammad Abu Laylah of Azhar University.<\/p>\n
[5]\u2018Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources\u2019 by Martin Lings, p. 35.<\/p>\n
[6]\u2018The Quran And The Gospels: A Comparative Study,\u2019 p. 47 by Dr. Muhammad Abu Laylah of Azhar University.<\/p>\n
[7]\u2018The Quran And The Gospels: A Comparative Study,\u2019 p. 47-48 by Dr. Muhammad Abu Laylah of Azhar University.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By\u00a0Imam Mufti The Bible is the sacred scripture of Judaism and Christianity.\u00a0 The Christian Bible consists of the Old Testament and the New Testament, with the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox versions of the...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2637,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[119,1,4,153],"tags":[129,193],"class_list":["post-2636","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-comparative-religion","category-general-topics","category-about-islam","category-religious-studies-and-research","tag-bible","tag-christians"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/investigate-islam.com\/web\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2636","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/investigate-islam.com\/web\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/investigate-islam.com\/web\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investigate-islam.com\/web\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investigate-islam.com\/web\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2636"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/investigate-islam.com\/web\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2636\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2640,"href":"https:\/\/investigate-islam.com\/web\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2636\/revisions\/2640"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investigate-islam.com\/web\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2637"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/investigate-islam.com\/web\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investigate-islam.com\/web\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investigate-islam.com\/web\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}