Prophet Muhammad

The first prompt is: the Prophet Muhammad is clearly mentioned in the Bible. Uthman opens by establishing that the Song of Solomon is not merely a love song. The Orthodox annotated Bible and the Oxford New Annotated Bible both describe it as prophetic speech involving mystical symbolism and highly figurative language. For centuries, critical biblical scholars understood the Song of Solomon as pointing to a coming prophetic figure — the allegory showing the relationship between God and who He would send to guide Israel and the people. That prophetic character is the context for the name appearing in Song of Solomon 5:16.

Uthman presents a printout from the Hebrew-English lexicon (with Strong numbers), showing that the word in Song of Solomon 5:16 is Muhammadim. The lexicon — written entirely by Christian scholars — lists the root as Hamida, which is the same Arabic root from which the name Muhammad is derived. This is not a Muslim source: it is a standard scholarly Christian reference used for Bible translation. The entry explicitly shows the Arabic cognate Hamida beside the Hebrew entry for Muhammadim, and lists Muhammad as a related noun. The lexicon even references the Arabic origin of the word.

The -im suffix in Hebrew is a masculine plural marker, but it is also used as a plural of majesty — the same way Elohim is used for God (grammatically plural but referring to one divine being). In Arabic, the same respectful plural form exists: the greeting Alaikum is grammatically plural but is used for a single person out of respect. So Muhammadim is Muhammad with the -im of honor and majesty attached — not a claim that there are multiple Muhammads. The construction is parallel to Elohim: the suffix intensifies honor, it does not change the singular referent.

Proper nouns in the Bible are never translated by meaning — they are always kept as names. The name David comes from a Hebrew root meaning beloved or cherished, but the Bible never says the most beloved or the cherished one — it always says David. Similarly, the name Muhammad in the Hebrew text should be kept as Muhammad, not rendered as the most lovely or the most praised. The lexicon written by Christian scholars even notes that in Arabic, Muhammad is a masculine noun — a proper name. Since the lexicon confirms the Arabic root and lists it as a noun, the name Muhammad is present in Song of Solomon 5:16 and should be preserved as a name in translation.

Uthman presents a scan of a handwritten manuscript — Al-Shifa by Qadi Ayyad, from an actual museum collection — showing that two prominent Jewish scholars at the time of the Prophet, Abdullah ibn Salam and Ka'b ibn Akhbar, converted to Islam. Both men were deeply learned in the Old Testament scriptures. When they encountered the Prophet Muhammad in person, they recognized him as the prophet described in their scriptures and accepted Islam on that basis. Their accounts confirm that even well-versed Jewish scholars of that era believed the Bible contained descriptions pointing to Muhammad.

Isaiah 42 declares: I will put my spirit upon him, my beloved servant — he will be a light to the Gentiles. The passage frames this not as a mission primarily to Israel but to the wider world. Uthman notes this is sometimes claimed to refer to Jesus or John the Baptist. But the passage immediately continues to specify the Arabian context — the people of Kedar and the inhabitants of Sela — which are explicitly Arabian locations, not areas near Jerusalem or Palestine.

According to Smith's Bible Dictionary — a Christian source — Kedar is the name given to the second son of Ishmael, from whom the Arab tribes descended. These Arab tribes gathered collectively in Mecca and were called Kedar. Sal'a (Sela) is a mountain in Medina. Uthman states he has physically visited Sal'a and confirmed that the Jewish community that once lived in Medina had a graveyard and a place of worship at this location because they understood it to be a biblical site. Sal'a is verifiable on Google Maps today. When Isaiah says the villages of Kedar will sing and the people of Sela will shout from mountaintops, this points to Arabia — specifically Mecca and Medina.

The Jewish Encyclopedia identifies Kedar as the ancestor of the Arab tribes from whose lineage Muhammad came. Bible Gateway — a Christian resource — states that the northern Arabian tribes of Kedar are what we now call the Arabs, and that the genealogy of Muhammad in the Islamic tradition traces back through the descent of Abraham through Ishmael through Kedar. Both of these sources are non-Muslim. They independently confirm that Kedar in Isaiah 42 points to the Arabian origin of the Prophet Muhammad — making the Isaiah passage a clear geographic pointer to the Arab prophet.

Isaiah 42:19 reads: who is blind but my servant, or deaf but my messenger whom I sent — who is blind as he who was perfect? The Hebrew word rendered as perfect in this verse is Mushallam. Uthman presents the Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew-English Lexicon, which shows that Mushallam carries the same root as the Arabic verb Aslama — the very root of the word Muslim. The passage therefore not only mentions Muhammadim (from Song of Solomon 5:16) but in Isaiah 42 also calls the coming prophet Mushallam (Muslim) — in the same passage that identifies the celebrating people as the Arabs of Kedar (Mecca) and Sal'a (Medina).

Uthman distinguishes the theological question (who does the passage ultimately point to?) from the linguistic question (what word is actually in the text?). When Bible translators do their work, they use lexicons — not theological presuppositions — to determine what a word means. The lexicon Uthman presents is written by Christian scholars and has nothing to do with Islamic interpretation. It independently lists the Arabic root Hamida as the source of the Hebrew Muhammadim and records Muhammad as a derived noun. Whether one believes the passage is about Jesus or Muhammad is a separate debate. But the word Muhammad — from Hamida — is present in the text. That is a factual linguistic claim, confirmed by the same reference tools used for translation.

The exchange concludes with a clear agreement: at least from a linguistic perspective, the word written in Song of Solomon 5:16 is Muhammadim — Muhammad with the -im of respect and honor — derived from the root Hamida in Arabic, which is the same root as the name Muhammad. The Presbyterian scholar confirms this. The theological question of whether the prophecy ultimately refers to the Prophet Muhammad or to Jesus remains a point of disagreement, but the linguistic presence of the name is not disputed.

Uthman argues that Isaiah 42 taken as a whole describes a prophet who: (1) will be a light to the Gentiles, sent primarily to them rather than to the lost sheep of Israel; (2) the villages of Kedar (Mecca) and the people of Sal'a (Medina) will celebrate his coming; (3) he will prevail against his enemies as a man of war; and (4) he is called Mushallam (Muslim). Uthman explicitly states he believes in the second coming of Jesus — so he is not arguing against it. But even granting the second-coming interpretation for the military element, the geographic references (Kedar = Arabia/Mecca, Sal'a = Medina) and the title Mushallam (Muslim) cannot be applied to Jesus under any reading — first or second coming. Jesus did not primarily target the Gentiles and stated he was sent to the lost sheep of Israel (Matthew 15:24). Even MacArthur's Study Bible concedes the man-of-war elements refer to a second coming because Jesus did not defeat his enemies militarily in the first. But all these elements — Arab geography, military victory, and the title Muslim — fit the Prophet Muhammad in one unified, historical event.

No. The age of Aisha is NOT in the Quran. This is the first critical point. In hadith sciences, we classify narrations by their chain of transmission. A Marfu' hadith is a direct statement from the Prophet ﷺ. A Mawquf hadith is a statement from a Companion (Sahabi). The narrations about Aisha's age are Mawquf — they come from Aisha herself reporting what she was told, not from the Prophet ﷺ. Furthermore, the narrations themselves are inconsistent: Sahih al-Bukhari records the age as 6, while Sahih Muslim records it as 7. This inconsistency exists because there was no formal calendar system in pre-Islamic Arabia. Ages were approximations based on what others told you.

In the science of hadith, there are three classifications based on who the statement reaches back to: 1. Hadith Qudsi (Sacred hadith): Words of Allah conveyed through the Prophet ﷺ but not part of the Quran. 2. Marfu' hadith: A statement, action, or approval directly attributed to the Prophet ﷺ himself. 3. Mawquf hadith: A statement from a Companion (Sahabi) — it stops at the Companion and does not go back to the Prophet ﷺ. The narrations about Aisha's age are Mawquf — Aisha reporting what she was told about her own age by others. The Prophet ﷺ never stated how old Aisha was. So when someone says 'your Quran says she was 6' or 'your Prophet said she was 6,' both claims are factually wrong. It's not in the Quran and it's not a statement of the Prophet ﷺ.