بسم الله الرحمن
الرحيم
وصلى الله على
نبينا محمد
وعلى اهل بيته
الطيبين الطاهرين المظلومين
One of the obvious similarities between the Prophets Moses and Muhammad عليهما الصلاة والسلام is that they both were responsible for the
administrative and political affairs of their communities. In the holy Torah,
the Lord God says to Moses:
נָבִיא אָקִים לָהֶם מִקֶּרֶב אֲחֵיהֶם, כָּמוֹךָ; וְנָתַתִּי
דְבָרַי, בְּפִיו, וְדִבֶּר אֲלֵיהֶם, אֵת כָּל-אֲשֶׁר אֲצַוֶּנּוּ
“I will raise them up a prophet from among their
brethren, like unto thee; and I will put My words in his mouth, and he
shall speak unto them all that I shall command him.”
[Deuteronomy 18:18]
This is in contrast to the promised Messiah of Nazareth عليه السلام who, during his lifetime, was a subject of the Romans
and their client, Herod Antipas. Now regarding the Messiah, Isaiah apparently
prophesied:
כִּי-יֶלֶד יֻלַּד-לָנוּ, בֵּן נִתַּן-לָנוּ, וַתְּהִי הַמִּשְׂרָה,
עַל-שִׁכְמוֹ
“For a child is born unto us, a son is given unto us;
and the government is upon his shoulder”
[Isaiah 9:5/6]
Now of course, Christians and Muslims believe that this messianic prophecy
regarding the Messiah being a ruler with real, earthly power and dominion,
shall be fulfilled during the second coming of Christ:
“Ye shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand
of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.”
[Mark 14:62; Matthew 26:64]
“And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it
he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he
treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.”
[Revelation 19:15]
لاَ تَقُومُ السَّاعَةُ حَتَّى يَنْزِلَ فِيكُمُ ابْنُ مَرْيَمَ حَكَمًا مُقْسِطًا
“The Hour will not be established until descends among
you the Son of Mary, a just ruler.”
[Sahih al-Bukhari]
According to the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus the Messiah warned the people
about the coming of false messiahs: “Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo,
here is Christ, or there; believe it not. For there shall arise false Christs,
and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if
it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. Behold, I have told you
before. Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go
not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not. For as the
lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also
the coming of the Son of man be... And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall
all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in
the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.” [Matthew 24:23-27, 30]
“The Son of man” is the title with which Jesus refers to himself, I think
because of the prophecy in Daniel: “one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the
Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him
dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages,
should serve him” [Daniel 7:13-14]
It should be pointed out here that the Aramaic word pelach does not
mean “worship” as some Christian Bibles have mistakenly translated it, but
rather “to pay reverence to”, corresponding to the Hebrew verb palach
which means “to cleave” [Strong’s Concordance].
The holy Qur’an likewise mentions the attribute of the Messiah as being
close or near to God, which may be a reference to his spiritual ascension:
اسْمُهُ الْمَسِيحُ عِيسَى ابْنُ مَرْيَمَ وَجِيهًا فِي الدُّنْيَا وَالْآخِرَةِ
وَمِنَ الْمُقَرَّبِينَ
“His name is the Messiah, Jesus son of Mary, held in honor
in [this] world and in the hereafter, and among the near.”
[Sura 3:45]
The Muqarrabin
are in fact a category of Angels that are near God [Sura 4:172], who may
also be termed the Kurubiyin [Cherubim]. As a consequence of his
spiritual ascension, Jesus the Messiah was placed in the category of the
Muqarribin, meaning he too was brought near the presence of the Most High, the
Ancient of days, though in spirit and not with the corporal, earthly body. In
the passage from Matthew chapter 24 which I have quoted above, it is apparent
that Jesus the Messiah warned against “false christs”, and that people should
be on their guard against such deceivers. The distinction between these false
christs and the true Messiah “the Son of man” is that the latter’s advent shall
be undeniable and clear, drawing on the parable of lightning that comes from
the direction of the east though clearly visible in the west. And perhaps this
is a prophecy that the Messiah shall come from an eastern direction, which
corresponds to the Hadith of him descending to the east of Damascus. Coming in
or with the clouds of heaven is from the Book of Daniel and Jesus repeats this
as a sign of the Messiah in the Gospels. However, whether this is a literal
descent from the sky or a simile expressing the heavenly authority that the
Messiah shall exercise in establishing a heavenly kingdom here on the Earth
that is powerful and glorious, is a debatable point. The authentic Hadith speak
of the nuzul or “coming down” of the Messiah, and this is usually
interpreted to mean coming down physically from Heaven. An isolated narration
even states:
كَيْفَ أَنْتُمْ إِذَا
نَزَلَ ابْنُ مَرْيَمَ مِنَ السَّمَاءِ فِيكُمْ وَإِمَامُكُمْ مِنْكُمْ
“How will you be when comes down the Son of Mary from Heaven among you, and
your leader is among you?”
[al-Asma was-Siffat lil-Bayhaqi]
It appears to me
that the addition “from Heaven” cannot solidly and genuinely be attributed to
the Prophet Muhammad صلى الله عليه
وآله وسلم because the same Hadith, as reported
in the Sahihayn, omit them, and the principle of Hadith sciences is that when a
narration, despite being technically authentic in its chain, differs with
another narration from the Sahihayn, the narration of the Sahihayn is given
preference, and Allah knows best.
According to an
authentic Hadith, the Prophet Muhammad met with Jesus the Messiah عليهما السلام during the night of his Isra –
the spiritual night journey to the Holy Land – and it was at that time that the
Messiah informed him:
فَأَنْزِلُ
“I shall descend”
[Sunan Ibn Maja #4081]
Therefore, the second advent of the Messiah is the coming of he himself,
though we do not know the reality of how it shall be, i.e., whether it is
physically coming down from Heaven, or the spirit of the Messiah coming down in
another body – Allah knows best. I have previously stated that prophecies
regarding the second coming of a historic prophet may be interpreted to mean
the coming of that prophet’s likeness, where the likeness is nevertheless a
distinct person. I cited the examples of the second coming of King David and
the second coming of Elijah, fulfilled in the persons of Jesus and John the
Baptist respectively عليهم السلام. However, in light of the Hadith
and the messianic prophecies of the Bible, the stronger view is that Jesus son
of Mary himself is coming. For if Jesus the Messiah will not return as a ruler
with power and dominion, then in what sense has the holy Qur’an refered to him
as al-Masiha? It is clear from the Bible and the words of Jesus himself that the
concept of the Messiah is that the latter shall wield dominion on the Earth,
acting as a ruler and king. I truly believe that the Davidic Messiah whom the
Jews are still expecting is none other than Jesus of Nazareth, but if Jesus of
Nazareth shall not return to exercise dominion over the Holy Land, then it is
meaningless to consider him the Messiah, but Allah knows best. Some Christians
and apparently some Muslims too have spiritualized the concept of the Messiah
and do not think it is necessary that the Messiah actually exercise any kind of
political authority in the Earth. This Christian idea that prophets of God are
never meant to exercise dominion in the Earth can be seen in their objection to
the Prophet Muhammad صلى الله عليه
وسلم. In the Teaching
of Jacob, a 7th century Greek Christian text, one of the earliest Christian
historical references to our Prophet صلى الله عليه
وسلم, it is
stated: “And they were saying that the prophet had appeared, coming with the
Saracens, and that he was proclaiming the advent of the anointed one, the
Christ who was to come. I, having arrived at Sykamina, stopped by a certain old
man well-versed in scriptures, and I said to him: ‘What can you tell me about
the prophet who has appeared with the Saracens?’ He replied, groaning deeply: ‘He
is false, for the prophets do not come armed with a sword.’”
This idea that prophets do not come armed with a sword is of course
un-Biblical. Both the prophets Moses and his successor Joshua led battles in
the name of God against the pagan tribes, such as Amalek. It is in this sense
that the Prophet Muhammad has been compared to Prophet Moses عليهما السلام [Deut. 18:18] as both prophets led their people into
battle against the pagans, with divine instruction and aid. It is also
interesting that the text of the Teaching of Jacob acknowledges that the
prophesy of Prophet Muhammad صلى الله عليه
وسلم revolves
around proclaiming the advent of the Messiah. This is an early historical
witness that Islam is an apocalyptic religion, and that the doctrine of the
coming of the Messiah, though not explicit from the holy Qur’an [though
certainly implicit], nevertheless was held to and preached by Prophet Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم and the
early Muslims. Moses was immediately succeeded by his right-hand man, Joshua,
who was granted the gift of prophesy. Under his leadership, the Israelites
conquered the Holy Land, defeating the pagan tribes, famously in the Battle of
Jericho. Subsequently, the nation of Israel was ruled by a series of judges,
military strongmen, until the advent of the Prophet Samuel عليه السلام, in whose
time the Lord God blessed Israel with a monarchy. So we see how the history of ancient Israel, after
their deliverance from bondage in Egypt and the last days of Moses, parallels
that of the early history of Islam. In both instances, the community of the
faithful were granted dominion in the land and real political authority. The
succession to Moses by another prophet, Joshua, then a series of judges, is
like the succession to Prophet Muhammad by the Siddiq, Abu Bakr, and the
rest of the rightly-guided Caliphs رضى الله عنهم who may be likened to the
Israelite judges [Othniel, Ehud, Gideon, Samson, etc.] These were not merely
righteous men who were spiritually close to the Lord God, they were granted
dominion in the land and political authority over their communities as a divine
favor. Because the would be followers of Christ deviated from his message so
early on, largely due to the influence of Paul of Tarsus – they were deprived
of this divine favor for centuries. Only when Constantine converted to
Christianity in the early 4th century CE did the Christian Church get its first
taste of power and dominion, but by that time the religion had undergone so
many fundamental deviations from the original teachings and beliefs of Jesus
that it would have been absolutely unrecognizable to him.
