As a manifestation of His mercy, the Almighty Allah (s.w.t.)1 did not leave mankind without guidance for their test on earth. He (s.w.t.) sent a prophet to every nation; from the first prophet, Prophet Adam (a.s.)2, to the last prophet, Prophet Muhammad (a.s.). It is a striking historical fact that in ancient scriptures, such as the Torah, the Bible, and even ancient written texts of Persian and Indian civilizations, it is heralded that a respected and exalted person will come as the ultimate guide for humanity. This truth is stated in Surah Al Araf (7:157), Surah Al Baqara (2:146), Surah Al-i Imran (3:81) and in many other surahs in the Qur’an. In these verses, it is emphasized that the people of the Book, Jewish and Christian reverends to be exact, clearly knew, as they knew their own sons, that the last prophet they have been waiting for was Prophet Muhammad (a.s.).

Many books have been written in Islamic literature by Islamic scholars and many priests who later became Muslims about Tebşirat (Good News), the subject of the coming of Prophet Muhammad (a.s.). One of these works is a book called “Risale-i İslamiye”* by pressman İbrahim Muteferriqa; a former priest of Hungarian descent who reverted to Islam and is one of the more well-known names in recent Ottoman history. Another one is Professor David Benjamin Keldani’s (Abdul Ahad Dawud) book titled Muhammad in the Bible. 

Prof. Keldani was born in Urmia, Iran in 1867. As a senior priest, he served in various missionary schools in the Urmia region. He reverted to Islam in 1904 and took the name Abdul Ahad Dawud.

Topics in the Book

Prof. Abdul Ahad Dawud compiled his articles which appeared in a magazine called “The Islamic Review” and published them under the book titled “Muhammad in The Bible” in 1928. In this book, which Prof. Dawud wrote with the intention of sincerely delivering the truth to the greater masses including his former Christian colleagues and his immediate circle, the concepts of the oneness of Allah (s.w.t.) and His attributes are evaluated from the perspective of the Torah, the Bible and the Qur’an. Also, verses from the Bible and the Torah that pertain to the last expected prophet are etymologically analyzed to reveal how they point to the coming of a man named Ahmed, otherwise known as Prophet Muhammad (a.s.). Furthermore, depictions and news of the future that are mentioned in the ancient scriptures by prophets like Dawud (David) (a.s.) and Yahya (John The Baptist) (a.s.) are shown to coincide with the advent of Islam and Prophet Muhammad (a.s.) and are comprehensively examined in comparison with the evidence provided by the Qur’an.

Beside English and Latin, Prof. Dawud was also fluent in Hebrew, and the Syriac/Aramaic languages. ​​He had mastered the ancient scriptures written in these languages when he was a high ranking priest and his expertise in these fields makes his etymological analysis, done with critical -analytical methods, more valuable.

The first topic that the author approaches in the book is the quagmire of the trinity belief that Christianity fell into regarding the unity of God. According to Prof. Dawud, Constantine I, the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity, played the biggest role in the officialization of this religious deviation. He also states that, by bringing the remnants of pagan beliefs into Christianity, Constantine I increased religious corruption and he barbarously murdered other Christians who did not accept the trinity belief. 

Citing examples of falsifications in translations of scriptures from Hebrew and Aramaic into Latin and later into English, Prof. Dawud traces the belief of Tawhid (the oneness of God) in their original roots. He examines the ‘father-son-holy spirit” trinity formula in corrupted biblical texts, the inconsistencies in the expressions of other religious decrees and irrational assumptions. While explaining the attributes of Allah (s.w.t.), he emphasizes the logical errors and wrongness of perceiving them as divine beings separate from Him (s.w.t.).

Other parts of the book disclose how the Hebrew and Aramaic words that point to Prophet Muhammad (a.s.) and Islam were deflected especially with semantic shitfs, misdirection and even deliberate wordplays that go as far as distorting the shape of the letters during translations. Despite all the distortions, the author emphasizes that traces of the truths that were attempted to be hidden can still be tracked down in the existing corrupt biblical text with a little reasoning. He follows this with examples:

He states that the exact meaning of the archaic Hebrew word himdah (originally Hamida) is Ahmed, one of the known names of Prophet Muhammad (a.s.) and shalam is Islam which means peace/well-being and surrender in Arabic. Himdah appears in the Torah in Haggai 2:7, “And Ahmad (the most glorified) of all nations will come” and in later verses of the Torah. Moreover, he says that in the scenes depicted in the continuation of these verses, the prophet who suddenly appeared in the temple of Prophet Sulaiman (Solomon) (a.s.) is Prophet Muhammad (a.s.) who was taken from Mecca at night by Angel Jibril (Gabriel) (a.s.) to the Masjid al-Aqsa in Jerusalem.

The other interrelated words that have been analyzed are mispha (watch tower/observatory), sapha (rock), sophi (observer/watcher) and mustaphi (trying to choose the pure and true in the best way). While explaining their relation to the hagag (hajj in Arabic) ritual in the Jewish and later Christian faiths, the connection of the word mustaphi with the word “Mustafa”, another one of the known titles of Prophet Muhammad (a.s.), is also examined. In other verses it is stated that the person pointed out by the word shiloh (apostle/messenger) and the person Prophet Dawud (David) (a.s.) calls “My Lord” is, again, Prophet Muhammad (a.s.). The author, while addressing the differences between Sufism with the Greek concept of sophia (wisdom/love of wisdom), makes on-point and correct evaluations about the importance of Sufism in his book. The author’s statement “Engaging in the metaphysical without relying on a revelation from the Supreme Creator is like crossing the ocean on a piece of wood” is quoted from Aristotle and Socrates and is meaningful in its appreciation of divine revelations.

The author states that the word Faraklit (Periqlyte), which is included in all four different versions of the Bible, is a deformed version of the Greek word Periqlytos and the exact Arabic equivalent of the word Periqlytos (himdah/hamida in Hebrew), which has the meanings of most glorious, famous and commendable, is Ahmed. He, again, emphasizes that in order to deliberately direct attention to Prophet İsa (Jesus) (a.s), even though there is no connection, the English translation of the Greek word Faraklit has been falsified by being assigned the meanings of comforter and defender instead. Furthermore, he draws attention to the parallelism between the fact that no one had been given the Greek name Periqlytos or Periqlyte before and the fact that Mohammad (a derivative of Ahmed), was a name that had never been given to anyone by the Arabs before.

We believe that this work of Professor Abdul Ahad Dawud is an excellent guide from the perspective of an expert priest for those who want to learn about the falsifications, deviations, and erroneous religious assumptions in the Torah and the Bible.

Ayşe Bayrak

Translated by Filiz Arslan

May 2022

Islamic Honorifics:

1. (s.w.t.) – (Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala) Arabic for “the most glorified, the most high”

2. (a.s.) – (ʿalayhi as-salām) Arabic for “peace be upon him”

* When Pressman İbrahim Muteferriqa reached the truth that the last expected prophet points to Prophet Muhammad (a.s.) in the Bible text, something that his teachers meticulously tried to hide and forbade their students from analyzing in depth during the years of his priesthood education, he declared his new faith, and said that he wrote his book titled Risale-i İslamiye to explain these facts.

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