In the Bible, in Deuteronomy
chapter eighteen, we have the words of Moses who reports that God told him that
He would raise up a prophet, from among the brothers of the Israelites, like
Moses.
Christians wish to apply
this to Jesus, to say he was the prophet like Moses. It is uncomfortable for
them to recognise, however, that Jesus was not very much like Moses and Jesus
had no father, no wife, no children; he did not die of old age, and he did not
lead a nation; all these things Moses had or did. But they say, well, Jesus will
return; he will return as a victorious person, and so he will be more like
Moses. Do they really expect he will return to also acquire a father and a wife
and children and then die of old age? Not usually. Moreover, Jesus was an
Israelite. The passage of scripture says that this prophet that was foretold
would be raised up among the brothers of the Israelites, not from the Israelites.
In the third chapter of
Acts, the disciple Peter speaks to a crowd of people and explains that Jesus
has been taken up and he is in heaven. He will remain in Heaven and he cannot
return until all the things that were promised by God come to pass. So what are
we still waiting for, does he tell the crowd? He quotes this very saying of
Moses, saying:
‘For God will raise up a prophet from among the brothers of the
Israelites like Moses ….’.
The point is very clear.
Christians like to see this prophet as being Jesus. But read carefully Acts
chapter three, what it says is that Jesus awaits a return. He cannot return
until the fulfillment of this prophecy, that another prophet has to come. Jesus
spoke of it himself and the words survived, just barely, but they survived in
the Bible. Jesus spoke of God sending another Paraclete.
Paraclete
There is a lot of
argument over the meaning of this word Paraclete.
For now we can leave that aside. What is a Paraclete?
It does not matter. The first letter of John shows that Jesus was a Paraclete. He is called a Paraclete and we have Jesus promising
another Paraclete is going to be
sent.
We lose a lot by this
word another in English because it is
ambiguous. If someone’s car breaks down, and it is a Toyota ,
and I say, ‘I’ll go and get you another
car’, maybe I mean, ‘I’ll go and get
you another Toyota because this one you have is
broken’, or maybe I mean, ‘Forget Toyota
But the Greeks had a word
for it. When they meant another of
the same kine, they said aloes. When
they meant another of a different kind, they said heteroes. The important thing here is that, when Jesus, who was
himself a Paraclete, said, ‘God will send
you another Paraclete’ he used the word aloes,
not heteroes.
Christians want to say
that this other Paraclete that has
been sent was different from Jesus. It was not a man, it was a spirit. What
Jesus said was: ‘God will send you
another one like me, another man’. Muslim believe that Muhammad is the
fulfillment of this prophecy by Jesus. The Quran says that this man is mentioned
in the scriptures of the Jews and the Christians (see 7: 157).
Christians came to
expect the return of Jesus because of a Jewish misunderstanding. ‘Messiah’ and ‘Son of Man’ have been given special significance by the Jews, even
though many people were called by this same names as in the Bible. The Jews
came to expect a victorious leader. When Jesus did not turn out to be quiet
what many expected, they hatched the idea that he would return some day and
fulfill all these prophecies.
Followers of Jesus
Suppose that someone
observed Jesus two-thousand years ago, and he left this planet, or he went to
sleep for two-thousand yeas and returned today to look for the followers of
Jesus, who would he find? Who would be recognise? Christians? I conclude with
just this food for thought: the Bible says very clearly that Jesus used to
fast. Do Christians fast? Muslims fast; it is obligatory one month every year.
The Bible says that Jesus prayed by touching his forehead to the ground. Do
Christians pray in this manner? Muslims do. It is characteristic of their
prayer and no one on earth is probably ignorant of that fact.
According to Jesus, he
told his disciples to greet one another with the expression, ‘Peace be with you’. Do the Christians do
that? Muslims do, universally, whether they speak Arabic or not. The greeting
for one to another is Assalamu alaikum
(peace be with you).
The brother of Jesus in
the Book of James, stated that no man should suggest what he is about to do or
highlight his plans for the next few days in anyway without adding the phrase, if God wills. Do not say ‘I will go here and there, do this and that’
without adding the phrase if God wills.
Do Christians do that? Muslims do, whether they speak Arabic or not. If they so
much as suggest they are going downtown to pick up some groceries, they will
add, Insha Allah, which is Arabic
means, If God wills.
These conclude my
thought on this subject. May Allah guide us always closer to the truth.
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