Did Jesus Redeem Mankind? — Page 172
? 165 forsake the children of Abram and that prophethood and dominion could not go out of the Mosaic dispensation. The result was that the warnings of the Divine prophets began to be disregarded. Prophets would come and proffer their teachings but the Jews would only ridicule them, as for instance, Jeremiah and others came and the Jews rejected them outright, laughing them off and taking for granted that God had given them the bliss for good. Then God gave them through some prophets the tiding that a virgin would give birth to a son, meaning that the promised one would be only half-Israelite and half non-Israelite. This was a warning pointing out that if the Jews persisted in turning a deaf ear to the teachings of the prophets, then in future another prophet would rise who would neither be an Israelite from his father's side nor from his mother's side. The promise was fulfilled in the person of Jesus—he was born without a father, and since the generation is carried forward from the father's side, it served as a notice to the Jews that half the prophethood had been taken away from them. They were thus told that the prophet sent at the time was not of the Jews from the father's side, and if they did not benefit by the admonition, the next prophet would be a non-Israelite, though of the stock of Abram. And so, it came to pass. Since Allah had made many promises to Abram (peace be on him) and would not brook depriving Jews of the benefits of these