Answering Islam - A Christian-Muslim dialog

Yahweh’s Servant Revisited Pt. 2

More evidence of Muhammad being a false prophet

Sam Shamoun

Continuing from where we left off, the Holy Bible expressly condemns the veneration of stone objects of any kind,

“You shall make for yourselves no idols and erect no carved images or pillars, and you shall not place figured stones in your land, to worship at them; for I am the Lord your God. “ Leviticus 26:1

Forbidding anyone from bowing down to them, or from even touching and kissing them:

“Yet I will leave seven thousand in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him.”” 1 Kings 19:18

“if I have looked at the sun when it shone, or the moon moving in splendor, and my heart has been secretly enticed, and my mouth has kissed my hand; this also would be an iniquity to be punished by the judges, for I should have been false to God above.” Job 31:26-28

“And now they keep on sinning and make a cast image for themselves, idols of silver made according to their understanding, all of them the work of artisans. ‘Sacrifice to these,’ they say. People are kissing calves!” Hosea 13:2

God further told his people that they were to destroy every stone and image venerated by the pagans in the land that he was going to give them as their inheritance:

“In the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho, the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to the Israelites, and say to them: When you cross over the Jordan into the land of Canaan, you shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, destroy all their figured stones, destroy all their cast images, and demolish all their high places. You shall take possession of the land and settle in it, for I have given you the land to possess.” Numbers 33:50-43

God even went as far as to have the bronzed serpent, which he had Moses fashion, destroyed once Israel started venerating it:

“In the third year of King Hoshea son of Elah of Israel, Hezekiah son of King Ahaz of Judah began to reign. He was twenty-five years old when he began to reign; he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Abi daughter of Zechariah. He did what was right in the sight of the Lord just as his ancestor David had done. He removed the high places, broke down the pillars, and cut down the sacred pole. He broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the people of Israel had made offerings to it; it was called Nehushtan. He trusted in the Lord the God of Israel; so that there was no one like him among all the kings of Judah after him, or among those who were before him. For he held fast to the Lord; he did not depart from following him but kept the commandments that the Lord commanded Moses. The Lord was with him; wherever he went, he prospered. He rebelled against the king of Assyria and would not serve him.” 2 Kings 18:1-7 – cf. Numbers 21:4-9

Muhammad, however, didn't follow the example of God's true prophets since he didn't destroy the black stone even though it was one of the objects worshiped by the pagans. He instead made its veneration part and parcel of his religion!

What makes this all the more ironic is that the Quran itself condemns the veneration of stones, claiming that this is nothing more than a work of Satan!

O ye who believe! Intoxicants and gambling, (dedication of) stones (wa’al-ansabu), and (divination by) arrows, are an abomination, – of Satan's handwork: eschew such (abomination), that ye may prosper. S. 5:90 Y. Ali

Ansabu is the plural form of nasibah. Here is how one of the standard Arabic lexical sources defines this word:

“… Certain stones which were set up around the Kaabeh, over which it was customary for the name of some deity to be pronounced in the killing of animals, and upon which victims were slain in sacrifice to another, or others, than the true God... An idol; or a stone which the pagan Arabs set up, to sacrifice, or slay animals, before it, or by it, and which became red with the blood…” (E. W. Lane, Edward Lane’s Lexicon [Williams and Norgate, 1863; Librairie du Liban Beirut-Lebanon, 1968], Volume 8, p. 2800; bold emphasis ours)

Thus, according to the definition given above, the black stone classifies as a nasibah since it was an object which the pagans venerated along with their other stones and idols. Muhammad was therefore guilty of adopting and worshiping a handiwork of Satan, and causing countless numbers of individuals to do likewise!

Ironically, the pagans of Muhammad’s time also believed that their stone figurines and idols would intercede for them before Allah. However, Muhammad wasn’t buying any of their excuses since he harshly rebuked them for their blatant idolatry:

If ye call them to guidance, they will not obey: For you it is the same whether ye call them or ye hold your peace! Verily those whom ye call upon besides God are servants like unto you: Call upon them, and let them listen to your prayer, if ye are (indeed) truthful! Have they feet to walk with? Or hands to lay hold with? Or eyes to see with? Or ears to hear with? Say: “Call your ‘god-partners’, scheme (your worst) against me, and give me no respite! For my Protector is God, Who revealed the Book (from time to time), and He will choose and befriend the righteous. But those ye call upon besides Him, are unable to help you, and indeed to help themselves.” S. 7:193-197 Y. Ali

And they worship besides Allah things that hurt them not, nor profit them, and they say: “These are our intercessors with Allah.” Say: “Do you inform Allah of that which He knows not in the heavens and on the earth?” Glorified and Exalted be He above all that which they associate as partners with Him! S. 10:18

And yet Muhammad ended up making the same claim for the black stone, namely, that it would serve as an intercessor for everyone that kisses and touches it! The blatant idolatry and hypocrisy are truly glaring.

In light of the foregoing, both the testimony of Isaiah 42:17 and the Holy Bible as a whole conclusively proves that Muhammad was not a true prophet of God, let alone the blessed Servant of Yahweh whom Isaiah spoke of. Muslims need to therefore stop appealing to God’s Word to justify their belief in Muhammad’s prophethood since, rather than supporting him, the Holy Bible exposes him as one of the antichrists and false prophets who was to come into the world to mislead people from the truth of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ (cf. Deuteronomy 13:1-10; 18:20-22; Matthew 24:23-25; 2 Corinthians 11:1-4, 13-15; Galatians 1:6-9; 2 John 1:7-11).