The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 1) — Page cvii
We are also told: GENERAL INTRODUCTION 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 Mahamaddīm). 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 10,000 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, 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) Muḥammad. Christian writers are wont to say that the beloved promised in this prophecy has been called Mahamaddīm not Muḥammad. But this objection does not go very far. The Old Testament name for God is Elohim. 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 hamare Muḥammad, meaning, this is our Muḥammad. (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 to his own people, as were the messages of all the Israelite Prophets. It would be open to other nations and peoples as well. We should not be misled by the feminine form of address used here. The passage is couched in poetical language, full of metaphors. The last line of the chapter uses the masculine form, which is contradictory, but significant. Thus we have: Let my beloved come into his garden, and eat his pleasant fruits (4:16). The prophecy (4:9-12), therefore, applies only to the Holy Prophet of Islam. Jesus was not one of the brethren of Israel, nor was his teaching addressed to any people other than Israel. lxxxi