Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Is Muhammad the Unlettered Prophet of Isaiah 29:12?

According to Zakir Naik (and many other Muslim apologists), Isaiah 29:12 predicts the coming of an illiterate prophet. The verse reads:

Then the book will be given to the one who is illiterate, saying, “Please read this.” And he will say, “I cannot read.”

Muslims claim that this prophecy was fulfilled when the angel Gabriel commanded Muhammad to recite the Qur'an:

Sahih al-Bukhari 3—The angel came to him and asked him to read. The Prophet replied, "I do not know how to read." The Prophet added, "Then the angel caught me (forcefully) and pressed me so hard that I could not bear it any more. He then released me and again asked me to read and I replied, 'I do not know how to read.'" ...

So does Isaiah 29:12 contain a prophesy about Muhammad? If so, then Muhammad stands condemned. For when we read the verse in context, we find that the entire passage is about judgment on people who are rebelling against God. I suggest reading all of Isaiah 29 to fully understand verse 12, but let's read vv. 9-14 to get the immediate context:

Be delayed and wait, blind yourselves and be blind; they become drunk, but not with wine, they stagger, but not with strong drink. For the Lord has poured over you a spirit of deep sleep, He has shut your eyes, the prophets; and He has covered your heads, the seers. The entire vision will be to you like the words of a sealed book, which when they give it to the one who is literate, saying, “Please read this,” he will say, “I cannot, for it is sealed.” Then the book will be given to the one who is illiterate, saying, “Please read this.” And he will say, “I cannot read.”

Then the Lord said, “Because this people draw near with their words and honor Me with their lip service, but they remove their hearts far from Me, and their reverence for Me consists of tradition learned by rote, therefore behold, I will once again deal marvelously with this people, wondrously marvelous; and the wisdom of their wise men will perish, and the discernment of their discerning men will be concealed.”

As we can see from the larger passage, Isaiah 29 is about God's judgment on a rebellious nation. People stubbornly refuse to obey God, so he curses them by taking away their discernment. Hence, if 29:12 is about Muhammad, then Muhammad couldn't have been a prophet. Instead, he was a stubborn rebel against God who used his illiteracy as an excuse to ignore God's revelations.


For more on Zakir Naik's claim that the Bible predicts the coming of Muhammad, see our longer video. For more on so-called Biblical prophecies about Muhammad, be sure to visit Answering Islam's page.

18 comments:

Tom said...

WHY are muslims appealing to the Book of Isaiah, when Isaiah is not listed as a prophet in the koran?
Where is the debate?
Ridiculous!!!

Unknown said...

Seriously david wood is d greatest dis believer I hv ever known.he sees d truth n̶̲̥̅̊ø̲̣̣̥ matter hw clare it is and instead of accepting he will twist it and end up making a fool of himself,notice hw his article badly refutes him.he said d. Verse was referring 2 a rebellious nation,weren't d Arab nations rebellious,dey tk alcohol,dey burry dere females Alive dey practice anarchy,Ÿ̲̣̣̣̥ø̲̣̣̥u̶̲̥̅̊ see hw his argument backfires against him? D fact dat d nation God ws speakin about were rebellious affirms d fact dat it was d pple of muhammed.and does isiah also say d prophet himself is rebellious?,seriously I dnt knw maybe his faculty of thinking is so low or maybe he always intentionally twist words.if 4 d sake of argument we assume d prophecy was nt about muhammed,I challenge d trinitarian pagan infidel 2 show me anoda prophet who fulfilled it.and if he can't,dat means d bible made a false prophecy and derefore its nt God's word or he can explain why a prophecy of d bible shouldn't be fulfilled since he claimed it ws nt muhammed.mathew 13:13 seeing they do not see and hearing dey do not hear,nor do dey understand.dis verse is directly speaking 2 david wood

Rishi said...

At that time in Arabia the people were worshiping Pagan gods. In the most revered Kabbah they were storing all this gods & praying to all of them. That is why it is said that these rebellious arab people must be dealt with the message of the god, from the messenger who is not learner-ed. God is not taking bad about the future muslims. He is talking about the current Arabs at that time who were committing all these atrocities. That's why god sent Muhammad to deliver god's message so that the people could come to the right path.

Unknown said...

The Qurran, was created in 610 AD. Book of Isaiah written in 700 BC. If everyone called him a prophet then, he is a prophet now.

Making Isaiah 9:6 True.
"For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor,
"Mighty God", Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace."

JESUS.

There are over 357 Prophecies of Jesus Isaiah wrote one of them. The Quran came hundreds of years latter. In the year 610.

The Quran which includes Moses and what God said is not the same What God said to the Jews, The Tanakh came first thousands of years before Islam and wrote about Jesus (Yeshua).

Check The Tanakh and the Bible, they match, because it is the exact word of God. The Quran dose not match because it was created by a false prophet. There is Proof of Jesus and even he said if anyone adds to the book of Revelation in the Bible would be cursed. So The Quran cannot be the Final Word of God.

If God loves you he would not tell anyone to kill you because you left Islam. Jews don't kill Jews because they left their faith, no do Christians and they both came first.

Unknown said...

Salem Eldin
The prophet Isiah is mentioned in the Holy Quran(38/48) :
(( 48 ) And remember Ishmael, Elisah and Dhul-Kifl, and all are among the outstanding.)

Unknown said...

Hi David, can you PLEASE correct the moron named ahmad abdullahi because clearly his intellect is non-existent!

Awaked Australian said...

Ahmad abdullahi
The verse sys the person says he cant read the book because it SEALED.Then the book is given to an illiterate .so if this is about Muhammad , he was second choice. First choice was the one who couldnt open the sealed book. Does this sound like the greatest and last prophet to you? Your choice is that its not about muhammad or muhammad is second choice. Which is it?

Unknown said...

If the Bible is such a great prophetic book. Please gives us the Bible prophecies about the Muslims because they cannot be ignored in the world and I tell you, they will surely dominate the world with or without the action of the world powers with or without other religions.

Unknown said...

If Mohammad (SAW) Was a false prophet, how could he have invented the fastest growing religion on earth? How could he teach people to worship the only true God? The God of Moses and Isiah and Jesus. How could he have condemned idol worshipping which very lucrative at that time in Arabia. I don't think any false prophet can do that. Also considering the many scientific facts that are found in the Qur'an, non of which has ever been proven to be wrong, all this from a book 1400 years ago. That can never come from a false prophet. Is there any false prophet that stood the test of time? Let's be rational and use our God given intellects

Unknown said...

Islam can only be the fastest growing in context of its way of behaving towards other human beings. Islam, in the Dar Islam is the most bigoted for of spirituality. It does not condone the presence of others defying, denying or rejecting its claims truth or spirituality. Secondly, Islam in the West and East demands concessions to practice its religion. Where there is opposition to Islam it responds usually through violence or other means of pressure. It is always easy to accept that Islam is the fastest growing religion elsewhere because there is no legal pressures on an individual. While in Islam the Shari'a and other cultural taboos militate against freedom of expression and association. Thus, the deceit of Islam and its Prophet is not directly correlated to its growth as it can be pointed out that other forms of spirituality also grows at an enormous pace, e.g.agnosticism and atheism, for example, has grown in leaps and bounds in the West, East and elsewhere. Does this make them essentially true? Truth, is what you perceive. Thus, to you Islam is truth because you rejected other forms of spirituality. Moreover, Christianity is incongruent with your philosophy, conceptions and perceptions because you accepted it that way.

Unknown said...

truth or spirituality. Secondly, Islam in the West and East demands concessions to practice its religion. Where there is opposition to Islam it responds usually through violence or other means of pressure. It is always each to accept the Islam is the fastest growing religion elsewhere because there is no legal pressure on an individual. While in Islam the Shari'a and other cultural taboos militate against freedom of expression and association. Thus, the deceit of Islam and its Prophet is not directly correlated to its growth as it can be pointed out that other forms of spirituality also grows at an enormous pce, e.g.agnosticism and atheism, for example has grown in leaps and bounds in the West East and elsewhere. Does this make them essentially true? Truth is what you perceive. Thus to you Islam is truth because you rejected other forms of spirituality. Moreover, Christianity is incongruent with your philosophy, conceptions and perceptions because you accepted it that way.

Unknown said...

Using the Shariah Law as a scapegoat ha samuel boi? The most bigoted my ass. Here I am seeing a bigot calling others bigot. Then explain to me the laws established by moses. By Moses I say. Not some satanic Hindu god. I am quoting from the bible. This is what the bible says. Not some satanic thalmud.

1.) Anyone arrogant enough to reject the verdict of the judge or of the priest who represents the LORD your God must be put to death. Such evil must be purged from Israel. (Deuteronomy 17:12 NLT)

Killing people because they disobey the priest. There is no stupid bullshit like this in thero called "worst religion"

2.) “If a man lies with a male as with a women, both of them shall be put to death for their abominable deed; they have forfeited their lives.” (Leviticus 20:13 NAB)

Killing homosexuals. And you call Islam homophobic even though there is no such verse against homosexuals.

3.) Whoever strikes his father or mother shall be put to death. (Exodus 21:15 NAB)

Killing children because of rebelling. But I thought it was American culture to disrespect your parents.

4.) All who curse their father or mother must be put to death. They are guilty of a capital offense. (Leviticus 20:9 NLT)

Disrespecting parents is a capital offense

5.) If a man commits adultery with another man’s wife, both the man and the woman must be put to death. (Leviticus 20:10 NLT)

50% of children born in the US are due to fornication and adultery.

6.) They entered into a covenant to seek the Lord, the God of their fathers, with all their heart and soul; and everyone who would not seek the Lord, the God of Israel, was to be put to death, whether small or great, whether man or woman. (2 Chronicles 15:12-13 NAB)

Killing apostates. Go lick my ass now. Dont know how many muslims dies because of your bigotry.

7.) But if this charge is true (that she wasn’t a virgin on her wedding night), and evidence of the girls virginity is not found, they shall bring the girl to the entrance of her fathers house and there her townsman shall stone her to death, because she committed a crime against Israel by her unchasteness in her father’s house. Thus shall you purge the evil from your midst. (Deuteronomy 22:20-21 NAB)

60% of Americans already lost it before weddings. Sad I cannot look forward tyo the population decrease. The lesser the bigots, the better

8.) But any prophet who claims to give a message from another god or who falsely claims to speak for me must die.’ You may wonder, ‘How will we know whether the prophecy is from the LORD or not?’ If the prophet predicts something in the LORD’s name and it does not happen, the LORD did not give the message. That prophet has spoken on his own and need not be feared. (Deuteronomy 18:20-22 NLT)

Muhammed has more accurate prophesies than the whole bible combined. Want some of its scoop? Just ask.

Contact: @salmanemad2003 on Instagram

Unknown said...

I will just say Alhamdulillah for being a Muslem. Really non muslems are dead on their mind, innalillah wainna ilaihi rajioona.

JeffThorsen777 said...

Very interesting, thanks!

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Fredrih said...
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Bliss said...

It is esay to act as though you have knowledge and insight. Easy to remove the speck out of someone else's eye while there's a log in your own eyes. How about "God knows best about who tells the truth and who tells a lie. Do you ALSO "disagree" with [Deuteronomy 18:18 and 19] 18."I will raise up for them a prophet from among their kindred, and will put my words into the mouth of the prophet; the prophet shall tell them All that I command.19.Anyone who will not listen to my word which the prophet speaks in my name, I myself will hold accountable." This message was given to Moses. So, if NOT Muhammad and Islam. Then, who WAS THIS PROPHET and WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE different from the people to whom MOSES was their prophet? This is still the Bible! Christianity saying that there's NO WAY to God except through Jesus CHRIST and Deuteronomy 18:18 cannot both be correct! It's in the BIBLE!

danutesikhailova said...
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