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Biblical Prophecy on Muhammad (pbuh) # 3
Promised one from Paran
by Maulana Muhammad Idris Kandhlavi
[ Back ] [ Next ] The Lord cam from Sinai are rose from Seir unto them , He shined forth from mount Paran , and he came with ten thousand of saints : from his right hand went a fiery law for them. (Deuteronomy 33 :2 )
In the Al-Javab -ul-Fasih : it has been quoted the Arabic version of the Torah as follows:
"The Lord came from Sinai, shined forth for us from Seir and rose from mount Paran" , and in the Urdu editions it reads as: "He (Moses) said :The Lord came from Sinai and rose from Seir shined forth from mount Paran :He came with ten thousand of saints and from His right hand went fiery for them"
In the Biblical verses quoted above three mountains have been named for three persons who have been prophesied about. In the first place, it refers to Moses who received his Torah on the mount Sinai ; Secondly it points to Jesus, who received his Gospel on mount Seir, a hill near his birth place, Nazareth ; the third reference is to the mount Paran of Mecca which undoubtedly points to the prophethood of Muhammad (pbuh) and to the revelation of the Qur'an.
The cave of Hira in Mecca is situated in this very mount Paran where the first revelation of Qur'an occured and the first five verses of the Chapter Iqraa (96), "Read, in the name of thy Lord, Who createthm , createth man from a clot. Read: And thy Lord is the most Bounteous, Who createth by the pen, teacheth man what he knew not" . were revealed therein. In Genesis 21: 20-21 it is narrated of Hagar and Ishmael as follows :
And God was with the lad; and he grew , and dwelt in the wilderness, and became an archer. And he dwelt in the wilderness of Paran ". The dwelling of Ishmael in Mecca is indisputable though vainly disputed out of jealousy by the Jews and the Christian ,; and this verse clearly signifies the Prophet who will shine forth from Paran and fill the earth with his light. Now, the readers may decide themselves, who else he was of the prophets if not the Meccan Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) who appeared from Paran and filled the earth with the light of true guidance ; the Prophet of Paran undoubtedly shed more light then those of Sinai and Seir. The "fiery law" refers to nothing but the Qur'an that ordains was against the unbelievers and apostates and retaliation etc.. the ten thousand saints refers to the army of his companions who accompanied him for the conquest of Mecca providentially numbering ten thousands as prophesied, while according to the Christians there were only twelve disciples with Jesus (pbuh) , who fled at the first signal of danger, leaving Jesus alone and one among them, Judas of Isariot even, betrayed him for just thirty eousy pieces of silver.
The fine arrangement and beautiful syntax of the Biblical verse 33 :2 cited above is worth consideration as it solves a very subtle problem : The law given to Moses , on Mt. Sinai at the dawn of human intellect , was followed by the law of Jesus that rose from Seir, as the time of the sun-rise, which were obscured and obliterated by the noontide full sun that shone from the Mt. Paran. And it really happened so, that the light of dawn ended the dark night of unbelief and the arch disbelievers Korah, Pharoah and Haman , all perished in the days of Moses.
At the advent of Jesus , son of Mary (pbut) the light of guidance appeared on the eastern horizon , and at the time of the advent of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) , the sun was at its zenith-so that the light penetrated every nook and corner of the world with full glory.
The Qur'an also refers to this even in a symbolic form: "By the 'fig' and the 'olive' , by mount Sinai m and by this Secured City" (Holy Qur'an 95 :1-3). Since fig and olive are the products of the region of the mount Sier, the Holy Land ,the country of Jesus's birth and his prophethood , and by the "City of Security and Peace" is meant the place where Muhammad (pbuh) appeared and taught his law.
In the third verse quoted above, there occurs the word, the "city of security", "the Sanctuary", as a substitute or pronoun for Mecca ; which means that Muhammad (pbuh) as a precious jewel of Divine treasure together with his mission of Islam, has been entrusted to that town; and this "Secured Land" protected its trust for fifty -three years , till his migration to Madina.
The Gist
The Qur'anic verses quoted above refer to three prophets viz, Moses, Jesus and Muhammad (pbut) - the last named terminating prophethood and closing the door for further revelations, because of the perfection of the Law in him.
Our opponents, the Christians, contend that Paran is the name
of one of regions of Sinai, and because Muhammad (pbuh) was not born in the
region of Sinai , the prophecy does not and could not refer to him. But theses
men seem to forget the book of Genesis 21 :12- 21,
"And God said to Abraham, Let it not be grievous in thy sight because of
the lad, and because of thy bond woman; in all that Sarah hath said unto
thee, hearken unto her voice; for Isaac shall thy seed be called. And also of
the son of the bond woman will I make a nation, because he is thy seed. And
Abraham rose up early in the morning and took bread, and a bottle of water ,and
gave it unto Hagar, putting it on her shoulder , and the child , and sent her
away : and she departed in the wilderness of Beer-sheba 1
.And water was spent in the bottle, and she cast the child under one of the
shrubs, And she went, and sat her down over against him a good way off, as it
were a bowshot ; for she said, Let me not see the death of the child. And she
sat over against him , and lift up her voice, and wept. And God heard the voice
of the lad ; and the angel of God called to Hagar out of heaven and said unto
her, What aileth thee, Hagar ? fear not : for God hath heard the voice of
the lad where he is. Arise ,lift up the lad, and hold him in thine hand; and I
will make him a great nation. And God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of
water, and gave the lad drink ; and he grew and dwelt in the wilderness, and
became an archer. And had dwelt in the wilderness of Paran : and
his mother took him a wife our of the land of Egypt. 2
The fact has been confirmed through traditions that the land where Abraham left Hagar and Ishmael is none other than the site of Mecca in a valley of Hijaz, and Ishmael lived all the days of his life in that valley and his progeny also inhabited in that region. Thus, it becomes clear that Paran where Ishmael lived is not the name-sake Paran of any Sinai region, but of Mecca where Hagar and Ishmael dwelt. In the Arabic translation of the Samaritan Torah, published by a German scholar in Gottengen, the residence of Ishmael is mentioned in these words :"And he lived in the wilderness of Paran (i.e., Hijaz) and married an Egyptian (Genesis 21-22).
After the death of Prophet Samuel , David (pbut) went to live in the wilderness of Paran3, where he wrote his Psalms and lamentingly described his sojourn there as being in the land of Kedar-the second son of Ishmael-which was in Paran , as one finds in 1Samuel 25 and Psalms 20 :5.
This amply proves that kedar lived in the valley of Paran and that he as the second son of Ishmael. The book of Isaiah mentions that Kedar lived with his children in the western4 territory. Ptolemy5 has shown central Hijaz as the place of his (Kedar's) residence : and this further proves that Paran is not situated in Sinai but in Hijaz in Mecca , where the Holy Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), appeared. Mecca is the most famous town of Hijaz and of Arabia, being the religious centre of the entire Arabia. And the "fiery law" means in the Judic nomenclature the God given law (Shariat)6,that ordains war against the infidels, retaliation, and penal servitude indicating that the prophet would possess regal authority ; but Jesus had no such authority nor was he able to punish or apprehend the culprits even his own persecutors. So the prophecy does not refer to him but to Muhammad (pbuh).
notes
1
The word wilderness, refers to Mecca, (Vady-e-ghair Ze-zara as referred to in
Qur'an), and Beer-Sheba, is associated in the current version of the Bible, with
Abraham, Hagar and Ishmael. It was for Hagar and Ishmael that God created the
spring of Zam Zam, which in course of time got covered up and thus came to be forsaken.
About a quarter of a century prior to
the birth of the Prophet, Sheba Abdul Muttalib, the grandfather of the Prophet,
undertook to find the well of Zam Zam. When he succeeded in finding the well, it
was named after him as Beer-Shena. This fact is mentioned in the books of
History.
2 The Arab always claimed that Hagar was from Egypt and she took the first wife for Ishmael from that land.
3 The Paran wild, is where Ishmael lived, as was prophesied , that he would be a 'wild man' , meaning thereby an inhabitant of Arabia of (wilderness that is Arabia: wild). The word wild was equally applied to the land and its untamed, and untutored people by the Jews
4 From Isaiah 20 : 13 to 1, we learn that "Kedar was an Arabian",so 'Western territory', where he lived , therefore refers here in Isaiah , to the western part of Arabia, Hijaz. Now, Kedar lived where Ishmael lived, and , there also lived the children of Kedar, and continue to live even to this day, i.e., in Arabia, Hijaz Mecca. Isaiah's land of his captivity too, was to the East of Arabia, so to the west of Assyria or Babylon we find Arabia. So, also, this description of Arabia stands to reason.
5 One of the 14th kings of Egypt, hearing the name Ptolemy-Claudius Ptolemxus, who reigned in the Second Century A.D., Alexandrian, Astronomer, Mathematician and Geographer
6 As the Jews had received the law on the Mt. Sinai , through fire, and heard God and his word through it, the association of the word fire with heavenly law is evident
(ICRA)