Muhammad and the Jewish Messiah Revisited Pt. 3

Sam Shamoun

We arrive at the final part of our rebuttal where we will now examine Muhammad’s teachings regarding Jesus. All Quranic citations in this section will be from Arthur J. Aberry’s version of the Muslim scripture.

Muhammad’s Dilemma

Contrary to Zaatari’s assertion Muhammad expressly taught that his deity does not allow any person, including the Messiah, to share in his kingdom. Muhammad also proclaimed that Allah doesn’t have any sons whatsoever:

And say: 'Praise belongs to God, who has not taken to Him a son, and who has not any associate in the Kingdom, nor any protector out of humbleness.' And magnify Him with repeated magnificats. S. 17:111

Blessed be He who has sent down the Salvation upon His servant, that he may be a warner to all beings; to whom belongs the Kingdom of the heavens and the earth; and He has not taken to Him a son, and He has no associate in the Kingdom; and He created every thing, then He ordained it very exactly. S. 25:1-2

Say the Jews and Christians, 'We are the sons of God, and His beloved ones.' Say: 'Why then does He chastise you for your sins? No; you are mortals, of His creating; He forgives whom He will, and He chastises whom He will.' For to God belongs the kingdom of the heavens and of the earth, and all that is between them; to Him is the homecoming. S. 5:18

Muhammad even went as far as to curse Christians for believing that the Messiah is the Son of God:

The Jews say, 'Ezra is the Son of God'; the Christians say, 'The Messiah is the Son of God.' That is the utterance of their mouths, conforming with the unbelievers before them. God assail them! How they are perverted! S. 9:30

To make matters worse, Muhammad denied that his god would permit any of his prophets to be worshiped or served as Lord:

It belongs not to any mortal that God should give him the Book, the Judgment, the Prophethood, then he should say to men, 'Be you servants to me apart from God.' Rather, 'Be you masters in that you know the Book, and in that you study.' He would never order you to take the angels and the Prophets as Lords; what, would He order you to disbelieve, after you have surrendered? S. 3:79-80

This leads us to the second problem with Zaatari’s bold assertions. He conveniently left out the fact tha his particular sect of Islam denies that Jesus will be given an indestructible kingdom where he reigns on earth forever. Rather, his version of Islam teaches that Jesus will rule as a just judge for forty years and then die,

Narrated AbuHurayrah: The Prophet said: There is no prophet between me and him, that is, Jesus. He will descend (to the earth). When you see him, recognise him: a man of medium height, reddish fair, wearing two light yellow garments, looking as if drops were falling down from his head though it will not be wet. He will fight the people for the cause of Islam. He will break the cross, kill swine, and abolish jizyah. Allah will perish all religions except Islam. He will destroy the Antichrist and will live on the earth for forty years and then he will die. The Muslims will pray over him. (Sunan Abu Dawud, Book 37, Number 4310)

Regardless of everything else Jesus WILL descend from the heaven. He will destroy the cross and kill the swine. The sincere among the Jews and Christians will enter Islam at his hand while the insincere will deny him and join the Dajjal - the Arch-Liar. He will renew the Shari`a of our Prophet Muhammad and kill the Dajjal. He will marry and have children and die together with the last band of believers left on earth, after which the Hour will rise. This is our Sunni faith and whoever wishes to disbelieve let them disbelieve. (Sh. Gibril Fouad Haddad, The Descent of Isa (Jesus); bold emphasis ours)

And who will eventually be resurrected to give an account to Allah for what he taught his followers (cf. Q. 5:116-118).

Suffice it to say, this not only contradicts the Christian Scriptures concerning Jesus, it also goes against the explicit teaching of the Jewish Bible that the Messiah is God’s Son who eternally reigns as Lord and whom all the nations must worship and serve forever. See Part 1 for the details.

The problems are far from over for Williams and his cohort since Zaatari also wrote:

“Within the texts of Islam we are also told of this kingdom that will be ruled by the Messiah, namely Jesus, and that this kingdom will in fact be ushered in when Jesus returns in his second coming and that this would be a major sign of the end times. Just like how the Jewish Bible teaches, this will be a great kingdom, which will serve God, and a kingdom in which peace and security shall reign.”

And:

“…The Jews never believed that the Messiah was going to die and rise in 3 days, surely if this was such an important cornerstone of God’s divine plan for the Messiah, then surely he would have taught about it…”

Once again:

“How does Islam play into this? Interestingly enough, for Islam, there are no problems, as Jesus was never killed by his enemies. In the Quran we get a contrasting version of events, according to the Quran God performed a miraculous deed and saved Jesus from death, God had saved Jesus from his enemies, and by doing so Jesus had truly triumphed over his enemies as God had foiled their plans. According to Islam God had raised Jesus unto himself, God had raised Jesus into paradise, where he awaits his eventual return, in which he shall establish his kingdom, i.e. the kingdom of God that was foretold in the Jewish Bible, and the kingdom of God that was taught by Jesus in the Gospels.”

The claim that Jesus is the Messiah whom God delivered from his enemies that tried to kill him by raising him to paradise, and who will only usher in his kingdom at his second coming, flies in the face of what rabbinic Judaism teaches. The very Jews that Zaatari keeps appealing to deny that there are two comings of the Messiah. They also deny that the Messiah will be born miraculously to a virgin. They even outright reject any notion of Jesus being the Messiah!

Thus, by looking to these disbelieving Jews to base his argument on Zaatari ends up proving too much. Zaatari has basically left himself with no choice but to abandon Islam altogether since Muhammad’s teachings concerning Jesus Christ go against what traditional Jews says concerning the Messiah. In fact, they even deny that Jesus is the Messiah!

This means that Muhammad is a false prophet (which he is) according to the beliefs of the very individuals that Zaatari has been appealing to for confirmation of his own position. Moreover, since Williams posted Zaatari’s article, thereby testifying that he wholeheartedly agrees with Zaatari’s perspective, he too is left with no other choice but to reject Muhammad as a false prophet.

In light of this dilemma which these polemicists find themselves in as a result of Zaatari’s arguments, the following comments from Williams become rather laughable:

“Sami has provided a coherent and plausible case for the Islamic understanding of the Messiah. I note too that you do not seem to realise just how contrary to the Hebrew scriptures the Christian idea of a messiah is.”

Hopefully, this series of rebuttals will help Williams realize that, far from providing a coherent and plausible case for the Islamic view of Christ, Zaatari’s rant actually shows just how incompatible to the Hebrew Bible Muhammad’s view of the Messiah happens to be.

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