Muhammad in the Bible — Page 25
25 What is thy beloved more than another beloved? (5:9). We are told that this beloved would stand out like a flag among ten thousand men. As a flag symbolizes an army, the description, therefore, applies to some great occasion on which this beloved would command a following of ten thousand. We are also told: His lips like lilies, dropping sweet smelling myrrh (5:13). Now myrrh is a kind of gum, of bitter taste but sweet-smelling and very useful, a germ-killer and a cicatrizer, used in disinfectant preparations, in treating wounds and making scents and perfumes. We are also told that “he is altogether lovely” (mark the Hebrew Mahamadd ī m). It means his person and character would be such as to compel love and admiration. This prophecy clearly applies to the Holy Prophet of Islam. It was he who headed ten thousand saints and marched victorious from the heights of Paran into the valley of Mecca, exactly as had been foretold by Moses. It was he whose teaching proved like myrrh for the world, bitter in taste but beautiful in its effects. It contained principles and rules all of which were calculated to promote the well-being of man, and which yet tasted bitter to some nations. And it is he who is called (and is true to the description) Muhammad. Christian writers are wont to say that the beloved promised in this prophecy has been called Mahamadd ī m not Muhammad. But this objection does not go very far. The Old Testament name for God is Eloh ī m. In Hebrew it is common to show consideration and reverence by using a plural for a single person. We do the same in Urdu. Lecturing in Urdu, a lecturer might easily conclude his tribute to the Prophet by saying Yeh hain hamáre Muhammad, meaning, These are our Muhammad! (b) In the Song of Solomon, we have another prophecy about the Holy Prophet of Islam. This is in 4:9-12. In these verses Solomon addresses his beloved as both sister and spouse (4:9; 4:10; 4:12). The simultaneous use of the two forms of address—sister and spouse—is not without significance. “Sister” indicates that the Promised Prophet would be an Ishmaelite, one of the brethren of the Israelites; and “spouse” indicates that the Message of the Promised Prophet will not be confined