Muhammad in the Bible — Page 35
35 deserves to be called the Counsellor. The Prophet also instituted the system of consultation as an essential condition of good government. Says the Quran: And whose affairs are decided by mutual consultation (42:39). General measures and administrative rules are not to be initiated until the people’s representatives have been consulted. Following this injunction, the Holy Prophet laid down consultation as an important duty of the Khal ī fa, or elected head of Muslims. He is reported to have said, “There is no Khil ā fat without consultation”. (Iz ā lat al-Khif ā ‘an Khil ā fat al-Khulaf ā ). A State administered without consulting the people would be un-Islamic. Compared with this, what did Jesus do as counsellor? He never consulted on any considerable scale. Nor did he encourage counselling as an institution. The Holy Prophet, therefore, was the Counsellor of the prophecy and not Jesus. The third name in the prophecy is mighty God. The Old Testament points to a resemblance between God and Moses. Thus in Exodus (7:1) we have: And the Lord said unto Moses, See, I have made thee a God to Pharaoh. And again in Exodus (4:16): And thou shalt be to him (Aaron) instead of God. In the Bible Jesus is called son of God and Moses a “like of God”. Whenever, therefore, a human being is spoken of as a “like of God”, it would mean Moses or some one like Moses. Moses we have shown above, foretold of a prophet like himself (Deut. 18:18) , and he is no other than the Holy Prophet of Islam, he being the one who really answers to the description of the prophecy. It is the Prophet of Islam, therefore, who can most legitimately be called God or, better, a Manifestation of God. We have references relevant to this in the Quran. At the Battle of Badr, the Prophet took a handful of gravel and threw it at the enemy. This proved a signal for a dust-storm which discomfited the enemy and contributed to his defeat. Of this, God says to the Prophet: And thou threwest not when thou didst throw, but it was Allah Who threw (8:18).