Is Prophet Muhammad ﷺ Prophesied in the Bible? | Dr. Ali Ataie

I guess I'll begin with talking about uh Ibraimisam. This is we're in um it's the month of the pilgrimage. Of course, we celebrated Eid not too long ago and the new year is coming. And so usually during this month uh we commemorate uh our father Ibraimisam as the Quran says that Ibrahimisam is our spiritual father and the Quran is very clear um of course the Quran makes Allah subhana wa tala I should say of course when I say the Quran makes I'm speaking rhetorically we know that Allah subhana wa ta'ala is the author of the Quran. Uh the argument that he makes amongst many arguments is that this tradition this religion this dean under the prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam is a restoration of the milah of Ibraimisam right a restoration of the creed or the uh religion of Ibraimisam because different religions uh in the world what's known as the broader sort of Abrahamic tradition different religions claim spiritual descendancy of Ibraim. And so Allah subhana wa ta'ala he tells us say Allah speaks the truth follow means to follow closely adhere to the milah of Ibraimisam. He was not from the mushri Ibraim Hanifh the or monotheist the quintessential monotheist Ibraimisam right and so with Christianity right there has been a theological deviation okay uh in the form of the incarnation the divinity of Isaam and the trinity and the Quran is very clear about these beliefs. The Quran is is clear guidance. There are people who want to muddy the waters and say, "Oh, you know, the Quran is not really criticizing, you know, orthodox Christianity. It's criticizing these deviant forms of Christianity." This is not a very compelling argument. Don't say three. The Quran doesn't say don't say trinity. It's more broad than that. Don't say three anything because there are Christians who say there are three hypotheases in Arabic, three persons of God that share one essence. There are Christians who say there are three gods. The monarchical trinitarians. I debated one a few months ago or a year ago or something. I don't know. Time flies. Maybe two years ago now. What year is it? [cough] uh he he was saying no there's actually three gods and the father is the gatheos because he is the uh he's the fundamental deity who produces the other two but they're just as god as as he is three gods there are Christians who say there's father son and holy spirit there are Christians who say father son and mother the coloridians they were in the hij the meaning is open. Okay. With the yahood, the deviation is in and also inab and to say that there's a chosen race that Allah subhana wa ta'ala made a covenant with us and it's irrevocable that no matter what we do, Allah is bound as it were. His hands are tied to stay true to his covenant and we are the chosen people irrespective of our obedience. Right? So that's a problem. And so the Quran says have of Ibraim. And this so if you look at our tradition there's right this is the strongest type of where our exigits they will interpret one verse of the Quran with another verse of the Quran. So there's an ayah in the Quran called right the verse of the examination. This is surah number three verse number 31. Say if you really love Allah because a lot of people claim to love Allah. We are the sons of God. We're the beloved of God. People make this claim, right? If you really love Allah, follow me. So the Allah subhana wa ta'ala is speaking directly to our master Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam. You have to follow the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam is of Ibraimisam. You see then Allah will love you right with a sukun meaning this is a result clause then if then if you do this then Allah will love you and forgive you your sins. Okay. And then Allah says indeed the closest of people to Ibraimisam are those who follow Ibraimisam are those who follow him right and then Allah subhana wa ta'ala he says in the Quran he's speaking to Ibraimisam I have made you a leader, an im for humanity. What about my progeny? What about my seed? Then Allah responded to him and said, "My covenant, my is called in Hebrew." It's very uh very important concept in Judaism. The Bit that God made with Bi isel. My covenant does not include the wrongdoers. There's no such thing as a chosen race. There's no such thing as a chosen ethnicity. This is a delusion. This is not is this is not Islam. This is not the tradition of Ibraimisam. Of course, in our tradition, we honor the SAT, the descendants of the prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam, right? for the sake of him sallallahu alaihi wasallam they have a special place but first and foremost is im first and foremost is tawa and Imam Abd Aliad who died in 1720 of a common era he's from Yemen he's widely regarded as the of his of his generation he said and this is a a descendant of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam speaking a direct descendant from Im Hussein he said by your life a person is only the son of his religion so don't leave tawa and lean on your lineage will not save you lineage my father is so and so his father is so and so taqua number one Islam for indeed Islam raised the Persian. It's one of my favorite poems by the way. Islam raised the Persian Salman, right? Salman al- Farese, by the way, Salman, a Pharisee was a a biblical scholar. He knew the Bible inside and out. He knew Hebrew and Syriak. He probably knew Greek. uh just amazing amazing person and so the Ansar and the Muajarim were fighting over him and so the Muajarim were saying he's from he's a muhajer he traveled to Medina he's from us right uh and then the Ansar were saying no no no no he he he became Muslim in Medina so he's he's from the so there was a difference of opinion the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam says so he's he's from us the people of the house like an honorary member of the bait As Imad concludes the couplet and indeed shik has debased the noble born Abuahab from bani hashim the uncle of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam his uncle fraternal uncle perish the hands yada right the say what does Allah subhana wa ta'ala say yada that it's because Abu Lahab used to put hands on the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam very bad idea very bad idea theith Allah subhana wa ta'ala says upon the tongue of our prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam whoever shows enmity towards my however you want to translate this sometimes that people say saint and then they kind of freak out oh we don't believe in saints my friend one who is close to Whoever shows enmity towards my friend, take notice of war from me. This is hadith on the tongue of the prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam where Allahhana wa ta'ala speaks in the first person. And so Ibrahimisam is a central figure in our tradition. Ibraim the father of nations. Right? So Islam is this restoration. Islam is a restoration of his milah. And so in terms of um Isaam right so there's something called christologology Christologology means the study of Christ [snorts] so this idea of the messiah right and so Jews Christians and Muslims this is something we have in common all of us all three religions they believe in the concept of the Messiah okay and there's what's known as positive Christologology ology and negative christologology. So positive christologology is answering the questions what is the messiah essentially and then who is he in particular and then negative christologology what is not the messiah essentially and who is he not in particular. So in terms of what is the messiah we are in agreement with the Jews. The Messiah is a human being and nothing more than that. 100% human being. It's a very interesting argument Allah subhana wa ta'ala makes in the Quran that the Messiah right which is translated Christ Messiah in Hebrew translated into the Greek Christo same meaning was no more than a messenger many were the messengers before him and his mother was a truthful woman Allah subhana wa ta stresses the truthfulness of Mariam Why? Because in Jewish tradition like in the Talmud, she is slandered, right? And this is this is considered to be for them sacred writings. The Talmud for the Orthodox tradition, even some conservative Jews, is considered to have a status of of near scripture, a type of or not quite like the Torah, but still sacred. And so Allah subhana wa ta, he tells us They slander her. They both used to eat food. Right? So the argument here that Allahhana wa tala is making Allah speaks to humanity. Right? I mean you readl you can you know if a very simple bedawin man who you know is not educated he can understand las. And then you'll have, you know, someone with a triple PhD write a whole dissertation on on the theological implications of las and how it's actually responding to the nyine creed and things like that. So the Quran is this incredible uh text, this this incredible linguistic tradition that speaks to all of humanity. The argument is Allah subhana wa ta'ala, God is intrinsically independent. He has his which means by himself or through himself. He's not dependent on anything else. He has right that he is self-subsisting. He feeds is never fed. But Isaam used to eat and so did his mother. Therefore they cannot be God because God has intrinsic aity. This is the argument in a nutshell. Or you can understand it as yeah it makes sense. God doesn't need to eat. God is all powerful. And so we have that in common with Bi is in terms of what is the Messiah a human being. Where does the idea of the Messiah arise historically? So when the second temple was destroyed right by the Babylonians in 586 B.CE and Allah subhana wa ta'ala according to the mufas speaks about that moment that many is they had two they had two they came into power twice. The first one was during the Davidic monarchy uh and then they disobeyed Allah subhana wa tala for Then Allah subhana wa ta'ala he sent against them. He said, "I sent against you certain servants of ours." Not that would mean that we're believers according to the certain at the end of the day everything is a slave of Allah subhana wa tala. Everything is in the state of whether they like it or not or they know it or not who were very skilled in warfare. So the second temple is destroyed. A lot of the banani is taken into captivity in Babylon and that was the Muslim ummah at that time. The bani is a Muslim ummah at that time. And so during the Babylonian activ captivity, Jewish sages and scholars and prophets, Israelite prophets, they began to prophesy that one day a king will come um who's going to be from David's line who will either rebuild the temple or restore, rededicate, cleanse the temple in some way. Okay, just as Hezekiah had done a few centuries earlier, restored the temple. Okay, and so the Babylonians are defeated by the Persians and most likely is Cyrus, the king of Persia. There's difference of opinion about this. Nothing is definitive. Uh but I find that opinion most compelling. Um there's another opinion that it's Iscander al Yunani or Alexander the Great. This a little difficult uh to convince me of that. Um most likely again probably Cyrus. And so Cyrus, he releases Ben Israel and they rebuild the temple. But no king had come yet. So half of the prophecy is fulfilled. The other half remains unfulfilled. And this king is called Hamsiach the Messiah. Okay. So if you fast forward to the first century, the time of Isaam. So before I do that, what we have in common with Christians. So the what the what of the Messiah, the essence of the Messiah is human. We have in common with the ban is with the Jews. The who of the Messiah we have in common with Christians. Both Muslims and Christians say that Isaiam Jesus of Nazareth peace be upon him is the Messiah, right? He is the Messiah. [snorts] And so according to the four gospels, uh, and this is probably historical. I know there's things in the gospels that are problematic. um you know you can take a class I mean I took classes at Christian seminaries at Christian madatis Jesuit schools Dominican schools and they admit all of these things and these are not like liberal you know crazy leftist scholars these are conservative our teacher was a Catholic priest wore a collar and he said yeah we really don't know who wrote these gospels and they're written decades later and they're written in the wrong language and you know I don't But you know, the holy holy spirit tells me that they're Yeah, I mean that they're inspired and I I I trust our tradition. Okay, that's fine. I don't find that very compelling, but you know, whatever you want. You can believe whatever you want, you know. Um uh but it's very interesting in all four gospels and twice in John, the first thing that isam does when he comes into Jerusalem is that he cleanses the temple. He makes a whip. A lot of a lot of Christians, they don't hear about this story in Sunday school because it's a little embarrassing. It passes what's known as a criterion of embarrassment because Pauline Christians who are the majority of Christians in the world, they want to present Isaisam as a gentle lamb led to the slaughter. He opened not his mouth. He he said resist not evil. He said turn the other cheek, etc., etc., etc. But here he is now committing an act of violence, an act of stasis, an act an act of insurrection because there's a Roman presence. This is during the Passover week. There's 50,000 Jews in the city. The uh the Roman legion is on guard during this time. And here he is making a whip and kicking people out of the temple and cleansing the temple. You have made this house into a den of thieves. So most historians would say this probably happened. Isaam did do something like this. And by doing this, he's cleansing the temple. He's claiming to be the Messiah, right? This is a clear claim to messiahship because that's the second half of the prophecy. The first half is the second temple will be built. There's no such thing as a third temple. There's no indication old or new testament. This a total bid. It's it's a it's a it's a um a post70 of the common era ad hoc interpretation to explain why did a temple get destroyed? Oh, they must have been talking about a third temple. There's no basis that's that's strong in the Bible, old or new testament for a third temple. Okay, second temple is here. Isaam cleanse the temple. He's the messiah. Now what happened was the Pharisees at the time um who were like sort of the religious establishment of the time amongst the ban is many of them were very very corrupt. Okay. So they saw what isam had did. So now they expect him immediately to pick up the sword and start you know getting down to business and taking out the Romans. you're the Messiah, let's let's get going here. Isaam, he doesn't do that initially. What he does is he turns around and he starts uh condemning their hypocrisy. Like Matthew 23, woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, you're hypocrites. You overlook the weightier demands of the law, justice, mercy, and good faith. You strain at the knat. You swallow the camel. You're like whited supplicers. on the outside you're clean, but on the inside you weak of death. Right? So he's attacking them. They don't like that. He's exposing their hypocrisy. It doesn't mean he's not going to pick up the sword, but first he's taking care of the Israelites internally. First we start internally, right? And when we do that then Allah will naturally bring about a change in society externally. But if we try to change things externally in disobedience to Allah, Allah won't have that. It's not going to work. There's no ti in that. Right? So we can work, you know, we can work 80 hours a week to bring positive change to the um in the world, but if we're missing our prayers, it's in vain. They say, "Why aren't things getting better?" Because we're in disobedience to Allah subhana wa ta'ala. So this is what Isaam is doing. So here's here's what they said. The Pharisees said, "Okay, here's what we'll do. We're going to uh put him in trouble with the Romans. And if we do that, he's going to have one of two reactions. Either they're going to kill him and then okay, he was the false messiah or he's going to flex as it were and will force him to pick up the sword. Right? It's called, right? Allah subhana wa ta'ala many many ayat in the Quran he says don't ask for things to be hastened things will happen naturally with Allah subhana wa ta'ala so they tried to hasten with isam and now if you look in the world or if you look in the 20th century so traditional Judaism is we were kicked out of the holy land by the Romans in 70 and again in 132 of the common era and we have to stay in exile and wait for the Messiah. But by the 20th century, many European rabbis among the Ashkanazim, they were saying, you know, this has taken way too long. Yeah. Where's where's where's our guy? So, here's what we're going to do. We're going to start doing his job for him and start flooding into the holy land and start cleansing the land of the indigenous Palestinians and start pushing for a third temple and that will bring out the Messiah. We'll force him out and then when he comes out we'll say, "What took you so long? We're doing your job. Where where have you been? This is bad with Allah subhana wa ta'ala." No, you stay in exile. Those are Zionist Jews. Not all Jews are Zionists. Most of them today are. At one point, none of them were, but this is something that caught on, especially after World War II, especially after the Holocaust, right? Um, and so they went to the Roman authorities and they said, "This man is claiming to be the Messiah, which is our king, which means that he's going to take you out. What are you going to do about it?" And so the Christian narrative is they crucified him. They killed him. A dead messiah is no Messiah at all. There's no indications whatsoever of anything in the Old Testament in the Tanakh. Even though there's been corrupted corruption in the text and in the meaning, there's no indication that someone will come back from the dead to fulfill the messianic mission. There's no there's no indication of this. In fact, the name of Isaam is Yeshua in Aramaic. Yeshua means he is saved. That's what it literally means. or Jehovah saves. God saves. And his name comes from a Hebrew root, Yasha. Yasha means to save. Every single time this verb is used in the Tanakh in the Old Testament, it means to save someone from dying. Not out not not out of death in the sense of being resurrected. It means to prevent someone's death and to extend his life. Every single time this verb is used in the Old Testament, this is how it's used to preserve someone's life and extend their life. So they backed into a corner. They told him, "Kill or you're going to be killed." Allah subhana wa ta'ala removed him from the earth and delayed his messianic mission, his kingly mission. He's not died. It's not a false messiah until the end of time. The ban is to this day continue to wait for their msia. They're still waiting for their guy. You see where this is going? and they want to build the third temple, right? So, so during these times, you know, the reason why the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam spoke about the end of time is because towards the end of time, there's going to be a lot of confusion and just people are going to be perplexed like oh how is this happening? This is so confusing. Did the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam say anything about this? Yes, he did. So the point is that when we see these thing these things happening we say aha he mentioned this oh he mentioned this oh he mentioned that jirel how many questions is the prophet asked anyone I heard three I heard four no five questions [laughter] What is Islam? What is im? What isanan? When is the sah? What are its signs? This a foundational hadith bkari in Muslim. to the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam in this hadith he gives us a couple of signs and then our hadith our esqueologgical hadith corpus is extremely vast because the point is when these things happen we need to hold on to our iman because the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam told us these things would happen the coming of the antichrist right the coming of the beast from the earth the second coming of Isaam but unlike well not I don't know about this We're in I forget I'm in Canada but in America there are people in our government who want to make right they want to bring about the second coming of Isaam so they support the Zionist state even though fundamentally theologically they're 180 degrees opposed there was an evangelical Christian a lot of these people are well-meaning they're very nice I was in I was in Memphis Tennessee right in the heartland And and this evangelical Christian lady, she said I said to her, "You know, the Jews don't believe in Jesus." And she said, "What? What do you mean?" I said, "They don't believe in Jesus as as as what as anything. He's nothing." No. Yes. In fact, I'm putting it quite mildly. [cough] [clears throat] Allah subhana wa ta'ala tells us in the Quran, you know, so why would the Quran quotes the the saying we killed the Messiah? Why would they say that we killed our Messiah? Because they mean that as in a in a sense of mas it's our Messiah. We killed the Messiah, right? It's mascara. And if you read Talmudic literature, they refer to Isaam as Yeshu. Yeshu. So it's just it's a slip of the tongue. This is what they do. Like when they would come and sit, they would listen to the majus of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam and the Sahaba, some of the younger Sahaba, they would say, which means like shepherd to us. Like they would hear something from the prophet and it was amazing. So they say say it again or explain it again and they would say and then some of the many is not all of but some of them would come and they would say in Hebrew means our evil one. They're calling him evil. They're calling him evil. The Quran says right or they walk by the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam they say and then immediately the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam responds [laughter] the never humiliates himself the believer is humble but not humiliated there's a difference right so this hadith a famous hadith one of my favorite hadith And so he was with Aisha and this happened in Medina and people sometimes you know they go to a grocery store somewhere in like California and they say oh this person was giving me dirty looks because I was wearing my kufi. Oh it's okay. The prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam they threatened his life in Medina his own city. He's the head of state. He's the uh uh the the head of the military the commander-in-chief because a death threat. May death be upon you. Right? So he's walking with Aisha and then Aisha she turned around and she said to boot and then so that's she reacted out of love. That's that's her beloved. The prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam was her beloved. Right? But the prophet is the great teacher. the great teacher from Alama, the one who makes an impression, the one who impacts you. That's why we can remember things. I can remember things from my third grade teacher because she was a great teacher. She made an impression on me. But I have college professors. I have zero recollection from them. Zip. And I was an adult. And it's not because, you know, I was partying. I never partied. Alhamdulillah. And so he says, "Mahalan, relax. Relax. And he said, "Allah is gentle and he loves gentleness." And then she said, "Didn't you hear what they said?" And he said, "Didn't you hear what I said?" I said, "Alaykum, right? And do you think Allah is going to answer their dua over my dua? Right. Uh and so um and so Allah subhana wa ta'ala he thwarted their plots of killing the Messiah. Okay. And so the Quran is a vindication of Ibraimisam in in conclusion. I know I didn't talk about the prophetam in the Bible. This was supposed to be introduction. I tend to do it, you know, I just kind of I give a long introduction and I never get to the actual thing. Sorry about that. I hope this has been helpful a little bit. The Quran restores the milah of Ibrahimisam. It reforms a Jewish mentality of racial supremacy. It rejects Christian theology. Not all of it. Some of it they got right. Some of it they got wrong. Okay? And it restores what's known as Jamesian Christianity. Did you guys know, have you heard of James the Just? This is something that people don't even know about. Even like I go to I talk to Christian audiences and I talk about James the just and they say, "Oh, you mean James the less?" No, that's a different James. Isaam had a brother named James. Whatever brother means, you know, it could mean that Miamisam had a son after Isaam. That's there's nothing wrong in our theology. I mean in Catholicism that's a big problem because the greatest virtue in Catholicism is to remain celibate. But that's not our tradition, right? That's considered a bid, right? And in fact, it's interesting, you know, like the pope is a priest and he's celibate. I'm going on another tangent, by the way. Sorry. [laughter] Um, so the first pope according to Catholics was Peter. And interestingly, if you read the New Testament, it says that Isaam gave a sermon in in Capernaum in the Galilee in the house of Peter's mother-in-law. Interesting. That means he was married. So the Quran says this they invented this is we did not prescribe this for them. Quran is exposing uh their faults as it were. Um the speaker is Allah subhana wa ta'ala and then the Quran is also I think is restoring Jamesian Christianity. So very early on there were two strains of Christianity Pauline and Jamesian. Pauline Christianity headed by Paul who is Jewish e ethnically but he mixed in a lot of hellistic or Greek elements into his understanding of the gospel. This form of Christianity became dominant and took over the Roman Empire. The other form was vindicated by the Quran Jamesian Christianity. Allahhana says that Isaam asked the who's going to help me to do the work of Allah subhana wa tala they said we will help you there's two factions and then we aided those who believed over their enemies the meaning of this according to Mama Razi is that that group was vindicated by the Quran Quran vindicated them those are the Jamesian Christians And James was the head of the early Nazarene movement. They weren't even called Christians. They were called, they were called Nasaro, Nazarene, not in Hebrew. For 30 years, he was the head of that movement. And so the Quran is just an amazing. It's an ocean. You know, we only just scratched the surface. Immazali calls it the Mad. It's a vast ocean. And from the Quran, there's different types of ayat that have different sort of levels of meaning. And so he likens them to different gems and rubies and pearls and things like that. Um in his jaw Quran, and so in conclusion, there are prophecies of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam in the Bible because there's truth in the Bible. Okay? The Quran says, and there's some Christians now that make this argument. This is a very bad argument. They call it the Muslim dilemma or something like this. There isn't a single academic that has any advanced degrees. No professor who agrees with this. But they say, "Oh, the the Quran agrees with the Quran confirms the entire Bible hook line and sinker. No academic takes takes this position." Quran says so in the Quran there's something called equivocation Allah this happens in scripture Allah subhana wa ta'ala uses the same word uh in a different context same word different meaning it's called equivocation for example in the Quran the word n means a physical light in the Quran it's it also means the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam it's also one of the names of Allah same word the context determines. So here in the context of these ayat Allahh is chastising the the people of the Bible to those who write the Bible with their own hands and they say this is from God to make some gain from it. So that's called right. Allahh also says those who follow the message surah 7 verse 157 those who follow the messenger the unlettered prophet or the gentile propheti means gentile what does gentile mean non-Jewish prophet there's prophecies in the bible of a non-Jewish prophet the word umi means gentile the Quran quotes some of the ban is in medina saying we will never be held to account for exploiting these goim. It's the Hebrew word the goim, you know. So there's been there's been some emails recently that were discovered that exposed this type of supremacy. You know, it's it's you know, it's very disturbing. You know, they a lot of these people believe that they're literally a higher species of human being, that we're just kind of like beasts and they have a different kind of soul. Not all of them believe this. When all got up, that means I should stop talking. I've I've come to the end of my session, right? So, let me just finish here. So that ayah 279 alakar 79 this indicates this indicates that the Bible has been altered in its text and the Bible itself admits it's been altered in the text. Jeremiah 88 says this very clearly that the law of the Lord has been the false pen of the scribe has turned it into a lie. And then in the next surah This is indicates that they they mess with meanings in the Bible or they mess with translations. And there's many many examples of this. And from them there's a section of the people of the book, the people of the Bible who distort the book with their tongues and they say this is from God, but it's not from God. And they know it's not from God. Inshallah, one day we'll come back and we'll actually do a a talk on the on the topic as advertised. [laughter] Isaiah 42, the whole chapter is a there's no doubt about it is talking about the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam. Isaiah 42 and there's cooperation from Sahabah. He was asked is the prophet mentioned in the Torah. He said and then he basically paraphrased Isaiah chapter 42. And if you read that chapter, it becomes very very clear. He's a universal covenant, a light from the Gentiles. Right. Anyway, I have to stop here. sister has a question here. >> Um just because of your um background in linguistics about the topic. Um I hear a lot from Christians about specific verses in John that refer you know in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God or before Abraham was I am referring to Isaiah. I just wanted your commentary about that stuff. >> Before Abraham was I am is not quoting Isaiah. So, so this is a good point. Um, if you ask a Christian at random, where does Jesus claim to be God in the New Testament? 99.99999% of the time they're going to quote something from John. See, when was John written? He'll say 90 CE, 100 CE. So, it's the last gospel to be written, right? Matthew, Mark, Matthew, and Luke are before. If you ask a Christian, you press him and say, "Who wrote Matthew?" you say a disciple of Jesus. No historian really believes this by the way, but this is a traditional attribution. This is what they teach like at Oral Roberts University or at um Liberty University, right? Like Evangelical College, the Moody Bible Institute where Bible is our middle name. That's where they teach this. Matthew the disciple, who's Mark, a student of Peter? Who's Luke? A traveling companion of Paul. Why did Matthew, Mark, and Luke not record these statements? Jesus is going around according to John claiming to be God. Before Abraham was, I am. The Father and I are one. I don't I don't even think these are divine claims, but let's just say, okay, they're divine claims. I am the resurrection and the life. John 1:1, the beginning was the word, the word was with God. The word was God. How did Matthew, Mark, and Luke miss all of these statements? Matthew is a disciple. He didn't record Jesus saying that one time. So, this sets up a Christian dilemma. the Christian dilemma. Either Matthew, Mark, and Luke uh either Jesus made those statements in Matthew, Mark, and Luke missed them, which makes them pretty bad reporters. How can we trust them at all then? In Matthew, Mark, and Luke, they mentioned that Isaam wrote a donkey into Jerusalem. Is that really important? Maybe it's important. But when he's going around claiming to be Allah, they missed all of them. That means they're pretty bad reporters. Or the second horn of the dilemma is Jesus never made those statements and John made them up. So why would you trust John? And in fact, most historians, they take the latter and say John made them up. That's the dominant opinion. They're not historical. Some Christians will say, "No, no, no. This is like um you know the parable of the four blind men, the four blind men and You say, "Okay, here's an elephant. Go touch the elephant and tell me what it looks like." So, one guy goes and he touches the trunk. "Oh, an elephant is kind of like a snake." And another guy goes and he touches the side and says, "An elephant is round like a ball." And then the third guy goes and he touches the ear and he says, "An elephant is it's like a kite." And then the fourth guy, you know, touches the tusk and says, "Oh, an elephant, whatever." Right? So, that's that's what it is. So, Matthew, Mark, and no, the problem with that is in the Gospel of John, Jesus makes these statements in public debates with Pharisees and the disciples are present. He's not telling John, "Come here, John. The Father and I are one." Sh, write it down later. Before Abraham was, I am. Nope. He's saying these things in public. Matthew, Mark, and Luke failed to record them. So, it's reasonably true that he never made these statements. Therefore, he never claimed to be God. >> Yes. Doctor for the um I wanted to ask why would Allah subhana wa ta mention to us in surah that he's prophesied prophecied the prophet sallallam in the Bible so Deuteronomy 18:18 Isaiah 42 like you mentioned when we also simultaneously say that there's interpolation in the texts and we also you know what we would say to the Christians that the authors of the gospels are pseudonmous um the same would apply also to Isaia and Deuteronomy, correct? According to critical scholarship, so how can we how can Allah tell the Yehood to follow the Jewish dispens dispensation and some verses in the Quran that you know they should follow their law? Um I'm not exactly quoting it, but you probably know the the verse. But how can Allah do that? Uh quote say that the prophet is prophecied and then we can also say that he's that it's interpreted. >> Good question. So both could be true at the same time. There's been of the and the but there's also truth. The Quran the Quran refers to itself as a means a confirmation but it also calls itself mu mu means an overseer or a corrective. It also calls itself alan the criterion of judgment right. So is Isaiah 42 really do I know is it that it's talking about the no I don't know but there are some descriptions of the prophetam in the Bible but it takes scholarship this is what I think Allah subhana wa ta is challenging the when you look at the bible through scholarship through an intellectual understanding you will come to understand that there's truth and falsehood in the Bible and there are descriptions of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam in this text because it's not all or nothing. There's truth in the Bible. Take a judgment from the Torah. That's that's a specific judgment. In this case, stoning. It's mentioned in the Torah. Somebody tried to to cover the verse. It's not a blanket statement. The entire or they use this hadith in Abu D. Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam, he was at the midrash, the like madrasa of the bunny is in Medina and he picked up it says the Torah and he put it on a pillow and he said that Allah revealed this and he said ah you see the entire Torah hook line and sinker is a revelation of God. The word Torah, if you study the word Torah in Judaism, the word Torah can mean anything from one verse of the Bible to the entire Old Testament and the Talmud, which is millions of words. Torah can mean one verse. Genesis 1:1. That's Torah. I quoted the Torah. Elohim. I just quoted the Torah. That's Torah. Or a Torah could mean all 39 books of the Old Testament and the entire Talmud millions of words that the whole thing is called Shamayim the Torah from heaven. Torah means teaching Jewish tradition. So the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam he took some portion of Jewish tradition that was true. He put it on the pillow and said Allah revealed this. Does that mean Oh, from Genesis 1:1 all the way through Malachi and the entire uh um the the the entire Talmud with uh both parts of it, the Mishna and the Gomorrah, all of that is absolutely true based on this one hadith. No, this is a ridiculous interpretation. Yes. This this is this is Jewish this is Judaism. This is Jewish tradition. Yeah. That that the covenant the beta that God made with the Israelites is irrevocable is unconditional. But if you read the Bible closely you'll see that's not even true. Yeah. Uh go ahead. is Ozer Ezra. So this ayah is Toba ayah number 30. One of the names of God in the Jewish tradition is uh isra is it means power or help. Right? Also the same root is in Arabic is dimminative is some like Hassan Hussein Hassan beauty Hussein little beautiful or like cute right? So little god or means little god in rebbitical Judaism starting in the first century or 2n century B.CE E there was this heresy called the two powers in heaven heresy. The two powers in heaven heresy. The Jews in in Palestine and the surrounding areas were influenced by Greek metaphysics and mythology and came to believe that there's two gods. There's the father god and the son god. The father god and the son s o n. Father and son. Right? The Pauline Christians are all the Pauline Christians Paul himself and the gospel authors in my opinion are all exponents of the two powers in heaven heresy. They're bytheists. They believe in two gods. The Quran says very clearly, don't say there are two gods. The Jews that didn't believe in Jesus, they also fell into this heresy. And they said, "There's God, there's Yahweh, and then there's his son, the Metatron, not Megatron. Metatron is Greek, right? Meta methronos." In other words, God has a son who sits next to him on his throne. He's an angel named Metatron. What was the name of Medatron in Medina among the Jews? I don't know. Probably Ozair. I would guess it was Ozair. I think it's referring to the Medatron. That's who Ozair is. There's a book by Gordon Newbie called the Jews of Arabia where he says in that book also, however, just as Enoch was translated into heaven and became the Medatron and were became the object of worship, the same thing might have happened to Ezra. the scribe.