Say, ‘Do you see whether this message is from Allah (God Almighty)? Yet you reject it, and a witness from among the Children of Israel bore witness of one like him.”
The Holy Quran 46:10 states, ‘And those who disbelieve say of those who believe: If it had been a good, they would not have been before us to it. And since they will not be guided by it, they say: This is an ancient lie.’ Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen, the subject of this evening’s talk is ‘What the Bible says about Muhammad.’ It may come as a surprise to many of you that a Muslim is expounding prophecies from the Jewish and Christian Scriptures. About 30 years ago, as a young man, I attended a series of religious lectures by a Christian theologian named Rev. Hiten at the Theater Royal in Durban, South Africa. This reverend was expounding on biblical prophecies, including the rise of Soviet Russia and the Last Days.
At one stage, he went to the extent of proving that his Holy Book did not leave even the Pope out of its predictions. He vigorously expatiated to convince his audience that the Beast 666 mentioned in The Book of Revelation, the last book of the New Testament, was the Pope, who was the Vicar of Christ on earth. Christian scholars are ingenious and indefatigable in their efforts to prove their case. Rev. Hiten’s lectures led me to ask if the Bible foretold so many things, not even excluding the Pope” and “Israel,” then surely it must have something to say about the greatest benefactor of mankind, Prophet Muhammad, may the peace of Allah be upon him.
As a youngster, I set out to search for an answer. I met priest after priest, attended lectures, and read everything that I could lay my hands on relating to the fields of Bible prophecies. Tonight, I am going to narrate to you one of these interviews with a Dominee of the Dutch Reformed Church. Lucky Thirteen: I was invited to the Transvaal (South Africa) to deliver a talk on the occasion of the birthday of the prophet Muhammad. Knowing that in that province of the Republic, the Afrikaans language is widely spoken, even by my own people, I felt that I ought to acquire a smattering of this language so as to feel a little at home” with the people.
I opened the telephone directory and began phoning the Afrikaans-speaking churches. I indicated my purpose to the priests that I was interested in having a dialogue with them, but they all refused my request with plausible” excuses. No. 13 was my lucky number. The thirteenth call brought me pleasure and relief.
A Dominee VanHeerden (the Afrikaans equivalent of priest”) agreed to meet me at his home on Saturday afternoon, the day I was to leave for Transvaal. He warmly welcomed me onto his verandah and asked if his 70-year-old father-in-law from the Free State could join our discussion. I agreed, and the three of us settled into the Dominee’s library.
Why is there nothing in the Bible about Muhammad? I asked this question and received the answer, Nothing!” I then asked why there is so much in the Bible about other topics, such as the rise of Soviet Russia, the Last Days, and even the Pope of the Roman Catholics, but nothing about Muhammad. The response was that there simply is nothing about him in the Bible. However, I argued that Muhammad was responsible for creating a worldwide community of millions of believers who accept Jesus as the Messiah, believe in his miraculous birth, and acknowledge that he gave life to the dead and healed the blind and lepers by God’s permission. Surely, this great leader of men who spoke so highly of Jesus and his mother Mary must be mentioned in the Bible. The old man from the Free State replied that he had been reading the Bible for 50 years and would have known if there was any mention of Muhammad. I then asked about the hundreds of prophecies regarding the coming of Jesus in the Old Testament, to which the Dominee interjected that there were actually thousands. I did not dispute this fact.
