Was Muhammad prophesied in the Torah?

One reason why Muslims should be eager to study the Torah is that there are prophecies of Muhammad in it, according to the Qur’an:

ٱلَّذِينَ يَتَّبِعُونَ ٱلرَّسُولَ ٱلنَّبِىَّ ٱلْأُمِّىَّ ٱلَّذِى يَجِدُونَهُۥ مَكْتُوبًا عِندَهُمْ فِى ٱلتَّوْرَىٰةِ وَٱلْإِنجِيلِ يَأْمُرُهُم بِٱلْمَعْرُوفِ وَيَنْهَىٰهُمْ عَنِ ٱلْمُنكَرِ وَيُحِلُّ لَهُمُ ٱلطَّيِّبَـٰتِ وَيُحَرِّمُ عَلَيْهِمُ ٱلْخَبَـٰٓئِثَ وَيُضَعُ عَنْهُمْ إِصْرَهُمْ وَٱلْأَغْلَـٰلَ ٱلَّتِى كَانَتْ عَلَيْهِمْ ۚ فَٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ بِهِۦ وَعَزَّرُوهُ وَنَصَرُوهُ وَٱتَّبَعُوا۟ ٱلنُّورَ ٱلَّذِىٓ أُنزِلَ مَعَهُۥٓ ۙ أُو۟لَـٰٓئِكَ هُمُ ٱلْمُفْلِحُونَ

Those who follow the Messenger—the unlettered Prophet—whom they find written in what they have of the Torah and the Gospel—who enjoins upon them what is right and forbids them what is wrong and makes lawful for them the good things and prohibits for them the evil and relieves them of their burden and the shackles which were upon them. So they who have believed in him, honored him, supported him and followed the light which was sent down with him—it is they who will be successful.”

– Surah Al-A’raf 7:157 –

The Qur’an encourages all people, and especially the People of the Book, to follow the prophet Muhammad. The main reason for that is because Muhammad is supposedly written in their own Scriptures. Therefore, by reading the Torah, the People of the Book should be convinced that Muhammad is the true Messenger of God. On these same lines speaks Surah Al-Baqarah 2:146:

ٱلَّذِينَ ءَاتَيْنَـٰهُمُ ٱلْكِتَـٰبَ يَعْرِفُونَهُۥ كَمَا يَعْرِفُونَ أَبْنَآءَهُمْ ۖ وَإِنَّ فَرِيقًۭا مِّنْهُمْ لَيَكْتُمُونَ ٱلْحَقَّ وَهُمْ يَعْلَمُونَ

Those to whom We gave the Scripture know him [i.e. Muhammad] as they know their own sons. […].”

– Surah Al-Baqarah 2:146 –

This ayah suggests that the People of the Book whom Allah gave the Scripture, know Muhammad as the true prophet of Allah because they have read about him in their Scriptures.

However, some Muslims believe that the Torah we have today does not contain prophecies about Muhammad anymore, because the Jews have corrupted it and removed these prophecies. Is that plausible? When Muhammad recited Surah Al-A’raf 7:157 and Surah Al-Baqarah 2:146, Allah made a point that the Torah that existed in Muhammad’s time contained preserved prophecies of his coming. Otherwise, why would Muhammad have tried to convince the unbelievers of his truthfulness by directing them to a book that is corrupted and didn’t contain prophecies about him anymore? That wouldn’t make any sense. Importantly, archaeologists have found numerous copies of the Torah that were written before and during Muhammad’s time! That means we know and have the Torah Muhammad was referring to.

As we compare the manuscripts of the Torah from before, during, and after Muhammad’s time, we also find that there has been very little change. The Torah we have today reads extremely similarly to the one before and during Muhammad’s time. Therefore, we can test Muhammad’s claim that he is prophesied in the Torah by reading the Torah we have today, the Torah that many Muslims claim still contains prophecies of Muhammad!

We now turn our attention to a passage in the Torah. Many Muslims believe these verses are a prophecy of Muhammad. In it, Musa says the following to the people of Israel:

[15] The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen—

[16] just as you desired of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly, when you said, ‘Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God or see this great fire any more, lest I die.’

[17] And the Lord said to me, ‘They are right in what they have spoken.

[18] I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him.

[19] And whoever will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him.

– Deuteronomy 18:15-19 –

In this text, Musa announces the people of Israel the coming of a future prophet. Notice two traits of this prophet: 1) he will be ‘like me/you’, that is, like Musa; 2) he will be ‘from your/their brothers’, that is from Israel’s brothers.

Let’s begin with the first requirement—that the coming prophet will be “like Musa”. Muslim scholars argue that Muhammad was “like Musa” in many ways—both were statesmen, brought a new law code, and led their people in a Hijra (a migration from oppression). From an Islamic perspective, Muhammad recited the exact words of Allah, just like Musa did. Therefore, one could say that Muhammad fulfills the requirement of being “like Musa”.

However, in the previous article we saw that Muhammad was not like Musa in the way he received revelation and prophethood in the cave of Hira.

The second requirement states that the coming prophet will be from Israel’s brothers. Muslim scholars point out that the Arabs are descendants of Isma’il, and the Jews are descendants of Ishaq. Since Isma’il and Ishaq were half-brothers, Muhammad, an Arab, would have fulfilled the prophecy. However, let’s consider the following points:

1. Read in context, the expression “‘from your/their brothers’” means the coming prophet must be from one of the twelve tribes of Israel. That means he must be a Jew.¹ However, Muhammad was not a Jew.
2. Even if we allow the interpretation that the expression “‘from your/their brothers’” means that the prophet can be an Isma’ilite, we still have a problem: As we have seen before, the Torah gives no support for Muhammad as a descendant of Isma’il. Isma’il was neither raised in Makkah where Muhammad was born, nor were his children. There is no indication that he or his children came to Makkah even once. Furthermore, he did not marry an Arab woman but a woman from the land of Egypt. Thus, his immediate descendants were non-Arabs. Therefore, we have no evidence that Muhammad was a descendant of Isma’il and that he thus fulfilled Musa’s prophecy about the coming of the future prophet.

One other passage of the Torah that some Muslims believe is a prophecy of Muhammad is found at the very end of the Torah. Shortly before Musa died, he blessed the children of Israel with a long speech. The following verses are the beginning of that speech:

[1] This is the blessing with which Musa the man of God blessed the people of Israel before his death.

[2] He said, “The LORD came from Sinai and dawned from Seir upon us; he shone forth from Mount Paran; he came from the ten thousands of holy ones, with flaming fire at his right hand.

– Deuteronomy 33:1-2 –

Notice three locations: Sinai, Seir and Mount Paran. Sinai is the place where Musa received his revelation. Some people argue that Seir is where Isa received his revelation while Mount Paran refers to the mountains of Makkah, where Muhammad received his revelation. Therefore, some believe that this is a prophecy that Allah would give revelations to Muhammad around 1900 years later.

However, is this plausible? After Musa and the people of Israel had left Fir’awn in Egypt, they were on their way to Canaan, the promised land that is modern-day Palestine. When they had reached the borders of Canaan, they sent men to spy out the land. The Torah says:

At the end of forty days they returned from spying out the land. And they came to Musa and Harun and to all the congregation of the people of Israel in the wilderness of Paran, at Kadesh.

– Numbers 13:25 –

Note how it took the spies only forty days to go from Paran to the promised land in Palestine, to spy it out, and to come back again! If Paran was near Makkah, it would have taken them around 40 days to travel there one way! In total, it would have taken them 80 days of travel (back and forth), plus the time they would have needed to spy out the land. Furthermore, the passage identifies the location of Paran with “‘Kadesh’”, which is located on the Sinai Peninsula (modern-day Egypt), right on the borders of the promised land. This shows that Paran—which is also where Isma’il settled according to the Torah —could not have been anywhere near Makkah.

Makkah plays absolutely no role in the Torah. Therefore, Deuteronomy 33:2 is not a prophecy about Muhammad. All the verse is saying is what it says when we read it plainly—that God came to these places (Sinai, Seir, and Paran) while the people of Israel were wandering in the wilderness—after they escaped from Egypt and before they went to Canaan. Therefore, the verse is talking about past events, not future events.

To conclude, what can we say about whether there are prophecies of Muhammad in the Torah? If the Qur’an is true, there must be prophecies of Muhammad in the Torah, because the Qur’an says that the People of the Book can find Muhammad written in it (Surah Al-A’raf 7:157). However, none of these verses of the Torah are about Muhammad, nor do we find any other descriptions of Muhammad or his followers, even in the Torah manuscripts dated to Muhammad’s time and before.²

Dear reader, with these words we have reached the end of the last article of Part 1, “The Qur’an and the Torah”. Let’s summarize the main points of all the articles so far. Please continue reading: