We read the following words in the Book of Deuteronomy, chapter xviii. verse 18: “I will raise them up a prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee; and I will put my words in his mouth”. If these words do not apply to Muhammad(pbuh), they still remain unfulfilled. Jesus(pbuh) himself never claimed to be the Prophet alluded to. Even his disciples were of the same opinion: they looked to the second coming of Jesus(pbuh) for the fulfillment of the prophecy.1 So far it is undisputed that the first coming of Jesus was not the advent of the “prophet like unto thee,” and his second advent can hardly fulfill the words. Jesus(pbuh), as is believed by his Church, will appear as a Judge and not as a law-giver; but the promised one has to come with a “fiery law” in “his right hand.”
In ascertaining the personality of the promised prophet the other prophecy of Moses(pbuh) is, however, very helpful where it speaks of the shining forth of God from Paran, the Mecca mountain. The words in the Book of Deuteronomy, chapter xxxiii. verse 2, run as follows: “The Lord came from Sinai, and rose up from Seir unto them; he shined forth from mount Paran, and he came with ten thousands of saints; from his right hand went a fiery law for them.”
In these words the Lord has been compared with the sun. He comes from Sinai, he rises from Seir, but He shines in his full glory from Paran, where he had to appear with ten thousands of saints with a fiery law in his right hand. None of the Israelites, including Jesus(pbuh), had anything to do with Paran. Hagar, with her son Ishmael(pbuh), wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba, who afterwards dwelt in the wilderness of Paran (Gen. xxi. 21). He married an Egyptian woman, and through his firstborn, Kedar, gave descent to the Arabs who from that time till now are the dwellers of the wilderness of Paran. And if Muhammad(pbuh) admittedly on all hands traces his descent to Ishmael(pbuh) through Kedar and he appeared as a prophet(pbuh) in the wilderness of Paran and reentered Mecca with ten thousand saints and gave a fiery law to his people, is not the prophecy above-mentioned fulfilled to its very letter? The words of the prophecy in Habakkuk are especially noteworthy. His (the Holy One from Paran) glory covered the heavens and the earth was full of his praise. The word “praise” is very significant, as the very name Muhammad(pbuh) literally means “the praised one.” Besides the Arabs, the inhabitants of the wilderness of Paran had also been promised a Revelation: “Let the wilderness and the cities thereof lift up their voice, the villages that Kedar doth inhabit: let the inhabitants of the rock sing, let them shout from the top of the mountains. Let them give glory unto the Lord, and declare his praise in the islands. The Lord shall go forth as a mighty man, he shall stir up jealousy like a man of war, he shall cry, yea, roar; he shall prevail against his enemies” (Isa. xlii. II.).
Ref: “Muhammed in World Scriptures: Vol. 2: The Bible” by David Benjamin Keldani