Al-Kadhi writes:
"But the prophet, which shall presume to speak a word in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or that shall speak in the name of other gods, even that prophet shall die."
Muhammad (pbuh) spoke not just a single word, but dictated a whole book in God's name. For twenty three years he spoke exclusively in the name of God Almighty. He was given one hundred and fourteen chapters, all of which were, and are to this day, recited day after day in God's name. Chapters in the Qur'an begin with the words "In the name of God, the Gracious, the Merciful." Yet he did not die, but lived to fulfill his message completely.
Al-Kadhi’s arguments about Muhammad’s status are based on faulty reasoning. He reasons that Muhammad spoke in the name of God for 23 years but did not die. Therefore he must have been a prophet of God. Now, to see the foolishness in this teaching, we can look at other, non-Muslim examples:
Does Al-Kadhi plan on becoming a Jehovah’s witness anytime soon? They still call God by His covenant name, and they too consider the Bible corrupt. They don’t believe in the Trinity or that Jesus was crucified. So will Al-Kadhi become a Jehovah’s Witness? I bet not!
Does al-Kadhi intend on becoming a Seventh-Day Adventist? White has written more published pages than almost any other woman, so she had books just like Muhammad. She considered Sunday worship the mark of the beast (a pagan practice). She plagiarized about as bad as Muhammad. At one point (I don’t know if this is still their practice), people had to confess that White was a prophet of God. So will Al-Kadhi become a Seventh-Day Adventist? I bet not!
One could come up with many other examples: Constantine, Sun Myung Moon, Brigham Young, Elijah Muhammad, the pope, Hammurabi, Zoroaster, the Egyptian pharaohs, the Japanese emperors (up until WWII), Martin Luther, John Calvin, the Catholic rulers Ferdinand and Isabel, the present-day Jews, and many others have come in the name of God whom God did not kill. Why, then doesn’t al-Kadhi convert to any of the religions of these individuals? Thus, one can see that the intended meaning of this verses is quite obviously not a promise of what God will do to a false prophet, for He did not kill any of these individuals who came in the name of God. Thus, one should be able to clearly see the foolishness of this argument.
For a more detailed discussion of Deuteronomy 18:20, see also this article in the Bible Commentary section.
Muhammad spoke in the name of God?
Now, the real issue is not whether or not Muhammad was struck down by God. The real issue is whether he spoke in God’s name, for God has given us a rule about prophets:
If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and gives you a sign or a wonder, And the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he spoke to you, saying, Let us go after other gods, which you have not known, and let us serve them; You shall not listen to the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams: for the LORD your God proves you, to know whether you love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul [Deuteronomy 13:1-3].
Clearly, the rule about prophets is not only whether or not their prophecies come true, but whether or not they preach in the name of the LORD (Yahweh). Muslims pride themselves in saying that every Sura with the exception of number nine begins with the phrase "In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful." But what does the Bible say?
And God said moreover to Moses, Thus shall you say to the children of Israel, the LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you: this is my name for ever, and this is my memorial to all generations [Exodus 3:15].
According to the Bible, God is the LORD (YAHWEH) God of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob. Moreover, God says that this will be His memorial forever. He says that His name will be Yahweh Elohim of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob forever. Now, when Muhammad came along, he called on Allah "God of Abraham, Ishmael and Isaac" (Sura 2.133). Is this the name of the God Who revealed Himself to Moses? He declared that He would always be the LORD (Yahweh) God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. See for yourself. He said he would be their God FOREVER and that YHWH would be his name forever. What else does God tell us?
And I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, by the name of God Almighty, but by my name JEHOVAH [YHWH] was I not known to them [Exodus 6:3].
Here God calls Himself YHWH (the Anglicized version of which is Jehovah). This is His name. Never once does He call Himself "Allah." God is called by the name "YHWH" almost 6000 times in the Old Testament (almost 1600 times in the Torah alone). Is He ever once called "Allah"? No! Not once! The word "Allah" is found in the Old Testament. It means "oak." Is there any hint that it could possibly be a reference to a name of God to come? Let’s judge ourselves:
And they gave unto Jacob all the strange gods which were in their hand, and all their earrings which were in their ears; and Jacob hid them under the oak which was by Shechem [Genesis 35:4].
But Deborah Rebekah's nurse died, and she was buried beneath Bethel under an oak: and the name of it was called Allonbachuth [Genesis 35:8].
And Joshua wrote these words in the book of the law of God, and took a great stone, and set it up there under an oak, that was by the sanctuary of the LORD [Joshua 24:26].
And there came an angel of the LORD, and sat under an oak which was in Ophrah, that pertained unto Joash the Abiezrite: and his son Gideon threshed wheat by the winepress, to hide it from the Midianites [Judges 6:11].
And Gideon went in, and made ready a kid, and unleavened cakes of an ephah of flour: the flesh he put in a basket, and he put the broth in a pot, and brought it out unto him under the oak, and presented it [Judges 6:19].
And Absalom met the servants of David. And Absalom rode upon a mule, and the mule went under the thick boughs of a great oak, and his head caught hold of the oak, and he was taken up between the heaven and the earth; and the mule that was under him went away [2 Samuel 18:9].
And a certain man saw it, and told Joab, and said, Behold, I saw Absalom hanged in an oak [2 Samuel 18:10].
Then said Joab, I may not tarry thus with thee. And he took three darts in his hand, and thrust them through the heart of Absalom, while he was yet alive in the midst of the oak [2 Samuel 18:14].
And went after the man of God, and found him sitting under an oak: and he said unto him, Art thou the man of God that camest from Judah? And he said, I am [1 Kings 13:14].
They arose, all the valiant men, and took away the body of Saul, and the bodies of his sons, and brought them to Jabesh, and buried their bones under the oak in Jabesh, and fasted seven days [1 Chronicles 10:12].
For ye [the people of Israel] shall be as an oak whose leaf fadeth, and as a garden that hath no water [Isaiah 1:30].
Is Isaiah saying here that God fades and withers? Is he saying that the Israelites will be like Allah? Of course not! He’s obviously NOT using the word "oak" as a reference to God.
But yet in it shall be a tenth, and it shall return, and shall be eaten: as a teil tree, and as an oak, whose substance is in them, when they cast their leaves: so the holy seed shall be the substance thereof [Isaiah 6:13].
He heweth him down cedars, and taketh the cypress and the oak, which he strengtheneth for himself among the trees of the forest: he planteth an ash, and the rain doth nourish it [Isaiah 44:14].
Then shall ye know that I am the LORD, when their slain men shall be among their idols round about their altars, upon every high hill, in all the tops of the mountains, and under every green tree, and under every thick oak, the place where they did offer sweet savour to all their idols [Ezekiel 6:13].
In none of these verses is God called an oak or compared to an oak. Clearly, the idea that God called Himself "Allah" is unfounded. Why is this significant?
If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he spoke to you, saying, Let us go after other gods, which you have not known, and let us serve them; you shall not listen to the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams: for the LORD your God proves you, to know whether you love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul [Deuteronomy 13:1-3].
Muhammad called on God by the name of Allah. God, in the period during which the Tanach was written, was not known by this name! How then could Muhammad have come in the name of God if Muslims claim to worship the same God as Jews and Christians? Sure, "Allah" is etymologically related to "el", "eloah", "elah" and "elohim", but none of these words are YHWH’s name any more than "God" is God’s name or "theos" is God’s name. Moreover, in the Bible, one can see that all of these words are attributed to people or things other than God: "elah" is used with reference to pagan gods in Jeremiah 10:11 and in chapters 2, 4, and 5 of Daniel. "Eloah" is used with reference to false gods in Daniel 11:37-39 and Habakkuk 1:11. "El" means "power" or "might" in several passages and "elohim" is used to speak of both human judges (Exodus 21:6 and elsewhere) and angels (Psalm 8:5). If any of these words were the "name" of God, no one in their right mind would call any man "Elohim"? YHWH, however, always refers to God, which demonstrates even more that this is His name. If you are a Muslim, do you pray to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Yahweh Elohim of hosts?
"But wait!" someone yells. "God is never called ‘Yahweh’ in the New Testament!" Is that really the case? The last time I checked, the name "Jesus" appears over 600 times in the Gospels. Is not "Jesus" the Greek transliteration for the name "YEshua" or "YEHOshua," which means "YAHWEH is salvation"? Was not one of the disciples named "Matthew," which is merely the name "MattitYAHU"? These people’s name bear the name of God, which was not ever "Allah" in the Bible. Jesus’ very name contains the covenant name of God, YHWH. Even though Christians consider Jesus God, we can still point to the fact that He bore the covenant name of God (YHWH, Yahweh), unlike the Quran’s mutilation of the name in "‘Isa." Clearly even Jesus came in the name of YHWH.
In fact, the New Testament book of Revelation actually uses the Greek transliteration of the Hebrew word hallelujah, which literally means "praise Yah", Yah being the abbreviated form of God's covenant name Yahweh:
After this I heard what sounded like the roar of a great multitude in heaven shouting: "Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God, for true and just are his judgments. He has condemned the great prostitute who corrupted the earth by her adulteries. He has avenged on her the blood of his servants." And again they shouted: "Hallelujah! The smoke from her goes up for ever and ever." The twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God, who was seated on the throne. And they cried: "Amen, Hallelujah!" Then a voice came from the throne, saying: "Praise our God, all you his servants, you who fear him, both small and great!" Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters and like loud peals of thunder, shouting: "Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear." (Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of the saints.) [Revelation 19:1-8]
Al-Kadhi believes that the New Testament was originally written in Hebrew. By his own logic, then, it is irrefutably true that God was called by the name of YHWH while Jesus was on earth, and not by the name of Allah.
Did Muhammad come in God’s name? Remember what God said about Himself in Exodus:
And in very deed for this cause have I raised thee up, for to shew in thee my power; and that my name may be declared throughout all the earth [Exodus 9:16].
Muslims claim that Muhammad was a prophet like unto Moses. If he was "like unto Moses," then that would imply that he was called to declare God’s name throughout all the earth. Did Muhammad declared God’s name YHWH throughout all the earth? Did Muhammad ever call on YHWH? Did Muhammad ever tell people to pray to YHWH? Does the name YHWH appear even once in the Quran? No! So did Muhammad come in the name of the God of the Bible? No! So was he a true prophet? No! Again, he did not declare the name of the YHWH but called his god by the name Allah, so he cannot be a prophet like unto Moses, and he must be a false prophet.
Clearly, the claim that he must have been a prophet because God did not kill him is baseless, for God did not even strike dead the founder of the JEHOVAH’S Witnesses, who are teaching all sorts of false doctrine. He did not strike dead the founder of the SDA church, which teaches that we are to still keep the Sabbath. If God did not strike down a false prophet who did come in His name, why should Al-Kadhi expect God to have done so with a false prophet who did NOT come in His name?
The Rebuttal to "What Did Jesus Really Say?"
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