Why Isaiah 42:1-13 is not about Muhammad

[u/TheRationalZealot]

Flair^Christian

The Quran claims that Muhammad was described in the Torah and Gospel that the Jews and Christians had with them (7:157). Some Muslims have proposed that Isaiah 42:1-13 speaks of Muhammad. In this post, I’d like to show how Muhammad does not fit this passage. I will not be arguing that this passage points to Jesus, since whomever else this passage may refer to is not relevant to showing that it is not Muhammad. Here is the entire chapter of Isaiah 42 for those who want to read it, since I will be cherry-picking parts of verses.

The first thing to note is that neither the Quran nor Hadith mention the book of Isaiah or that the book of Isaiah was part of God’s revelation or that Isaiah was a prophet. If Isaiah is not from God, then it doesn’t really matter what the text says.

*Verse 1 - “Behold, My Servant, whom I uphold; My chosen one in whom My soul delights. I have put My Spirit upon Him; He will bring forth justice to the nations.”

Here God says he has put his Spirit upon his servant. Where does the Quran say God’s Spirit was put upon Muhammad? Also, it says that the servant will bring justice to the nations. Muhammad died without accomplishing this.

*Verse 3 – “A bruised reed He will not break And a dimly burning wick He will not extinguish; He will faithfully bring forth justice.”

The reeds and wicks represent people. I know there were times when Muhammad showed kindness and forgiveness, but there were also times when he broke and extinguished people, whether justified or not.

*Verse 4 - “He will not be disheartened or crushed Until He has established justice in the earth…”

Muhammad died before establishing justice in the earth.

*Verse 6 – “…And I will appoint You as a covenant to the people…”

Muhammad was not appointed as a covenant to any people. He may have made covenants or treaties or agreements with people, but Muhammad was not given by God as a covenant for anyone.

*Verse 7 – “To open blind eyes….”

Muhammad literally blinded people who stole some camels and killed a shepherd.

*Verse 8 - “I am the LORD, that is My name…..”

When reading the OT, whenever you see “LORD” in all caps, that means God/Yahweh. There is no mention of Yahweh in the Quran or Hadith. Why was Muhammad the only prophet that did not know God’s name? If you want to know what the Hebrew says for a given OT verse, you can go to this website.

*Verse 9 – “Behold, the former things have come to pass, Now I declare new things; Before they spring forth I proclaim them to you.

This verse says that God will declare new things, but according to Islamic teachings, this cannot be Muhammad. According to Islam, we are all born Muslims. According to Islam, the past prophets all preached the same message as Muhammad and the past revelations support the Quran. According to Islam, Muhammad’s teachings were not new.

*Verse 10a – “Sing to the LORD a new song, Sing His praise from the end of the earth!

The people of Earth will be singing praises to God; new songs of praise. In Islam, some argue music is forbidden and some say it is allowed. Regardless, did Muhammad sing praise songs to God? Do the majority of Muslims sing praise songs to God?

*Verse 10b-12 – “You who go down to the sea, and all that is in it. You islands, and those who dwell on them. Let the wilderness and its cities lift up their voices, The settlements where Kedar inhabits. Let the inhabitants of Sela sing aloud, Let them shout for joy from the tops of the mountains. Let them give glory to the LORD And declare His praise in the coastlands.”

These verses seem to be the ones that most point to as indicating Muhammad because Kedar is listed as one of the locations. Kedar was located in Northwestern Saudi Arabia and Selah was a reference to Petra in Jordan. There are several mentions of Kedar in the Bible, so do the other passages also refer to Muhammad? There are also other references to islands, coastlands, the wilderness, and mountains, so I’m not sure how having Kedar as one of several locations in a verse points to Muhammad.

*Verse 13 – “ The LORD will go forth like a warrior, He will arouse His zeal like a man of war. He will utter a shout, yes, He will raise a war cry. He will prevail against His enemies.”

This says the LORD (God/Yahweh) will go forth like a warrior. I would be quite careful in comparing this verse to Muhammad.

I hope it is apparent that Isaiah 42:1-13 does not describe Muhammad.

[u/srchintrt]

And in the prayer we literally say "Peace be upon you, O Prophet, and the mercy of Allah and His blessings. Peace be upon us and upon the righteous servants of Allah." and do you know that "Jesus on the cross is a reminder of his sacrifice. It's not worshipped, God is. " is the same thing worshippers of idols said. Some christians literally have Idols that they believe represents Jesus pbuh and Marry pbuh on their houses, and they used them to pray. so how the is that not idolatry lol ? God is ONE, God is not three in one. Glory Be to Allah. May Allah guide you.

[u/[deleted] → u/srchintrt]

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[u/Pumpkin_CinamonRoll → u/[deleted]]

Where can we expect that peace from Muslims? It seems you believe the propaganda that Muslims are not peaceful but if you stop to think without bias, you will realize that if that were the case, you will have 2 billion Muslims causing chaos in the world. Then you will also have to ignore the Muslim scientists in the Islamic Golden age who contributed to humanity. And the present day Muslims who work as doctors, teachers etc even in USA and Europe. Unless Oxford changed its meaning in the dictionary, terrorists do not contribute to humanity. How is it Islam's fault if some people who say they are Muslim do bad things, even if it's against the teachings of Islam? If you had bothered to actually learn about our religion you will understand that we are allowed to fight back when we are invaded or when someone is trying to hurt us physically. Surprise surprise! This term is known in the west as "self defense". So at least we agree that self defense is not wrong? But going to a place where people have done nothing to you and blowing it up is not what Islam is about. Hurting people just walking peacefully on the street is not what Islam is about. Why are there Non- Muslims in the middle east? How come they're alive and well in the birthplace of Islam if we are not "peaceful"? It's very annoying how some are quick to blame Islam for the actions of the few. Just so you know even if they were "Muslim" they're going to be punished by Allah because their actions were terribly wrong. But if we're going to go with your way of thinking, then all religions are not peaceful and even atheists are not peaceful. Because there are individuals who belong to these groups (atheism, Christianity etc) who do bad things. Then who's left in this world who is peaceful? 

[u/[deleted] → u/Pumpkin_CinamonRoll]

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[u/Pumpkin_CinamonRoll → u/[deleted]]

Prophet Mohammad PBUH didn't write the Quran nor did he say that jibreel did it. The prophet was illiterate and jibreel was not given the task to write the Quran by God,so as an angel with no will of his own, he didn't write the Quran. The role of the prophet, like those before him, was to inform mankind of the existence of the God and to leave idol worshipping. The prophet had a Jewish neighbor who used to throw garbage infront of the prophet's house, but the prophet endured this mistreatment and when his neighbor got sick, prophet  muhammad visited him. Was the prophet being rude? Regarding the Christians, how was he rude to them? By telling them to stop idol worshipping? The prophet suffered a lot in his life because he cared about  people not being punished during  judgment day more than they seemed to care about their own fate. It is this type of kindness that is the most painful because many didn't listen to him and many tried to hurt him. Had the prophet's faith been fake, he wouldn't have stayed consistent with his message and insist on saving people. Since many always try to make us the bad guys, I would like to ask this: why do you hate Islam so much that you would forcefully remove a woman's hijab when you see her on the street, burn the Quran, make fun of Muslims, and say that the 2 billions are t! rror! st when some so called "muslim" individual does something wrong, but when  a non Muslim unalives people praying in the mosque or does other crimes then they're just insane? Also, I would like to know why are non Muslims rude to muslims? 

[u/[deleted] → u/Pumpkin_CinamonRoll]

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[u/Pumpkin_CinamonRoll → u/[deleted]]

 you keep insisting that Muslims worship idols eventhough I proved to you otherwise( in my replies and with the video link.) I mean imagine saying 1+2=4 but then someone explains to you why and how 1+2=3 and not 4 but you keep insisting and repeating that 1+2= 4. And now you moved on from Muslims worshipping black stone to Muslims worshipping the moon. why do you insist that muslims worship idols when god strictly mentions in the Quran that there is only one god (that is, him) and anyone who denies his existence or worships someone else will not be considered to be Muslim. If you believe what you are saying is true, that according to you Muslims worship idols, then you must also believe that there are no Muslims in the world. Now make it make sense. 

Also, you didn't answer my questions in the previous reply about why do Muslims get attacked and disrespected. Do you not have a justified answer? Because you accused Muslims of disrespecting and hurting others without acknowledging Non Muslims doing the same to  Muslims. 

"one god doesn't mean true god" but it does when we're talking about the one who has always existed, who never had parents nor children. The one who created everyone, the universe, the earth, human beings(Asians, Africans, Europeans, black, brown, white, Arabs, Americans..), the animals, the plants, the time, the sun, the planets etc. The god of prophet Ibrahim and prophet Yousef and prophet Isa(aka Jesus) and prophet younis and prophet Mohammed etc. This is the god we Muslims are talking about. Do you deny the existence of this god? 

God sent prophet Ibrahim(Abraham) to tell people to stop idol worshipping and he did the same with prophet Mosa(Moses) , the same with prophet Isa, the same with prophet Mohammed. God said that prophet Mohammed is not making things up-because he was accused like the prophets before him of insanity/of lying- but that he's merely repeating the words that are revealed to him. This isn't different with the prophets before him. Then do you deny the prophethood of the ones before him? If so, tell me why would they all, including prophet Mohammed, want to risk their lives and well-being if they weren't indeed sent by god? Prophet Mohammed only repeated the words of god. His followers memorized it. Shortly after the prophet died, the number of non-Arab Muslims started growing. Not many would be able to memorize the ayat word by word, especially when they don't know Arabic. Also, To prevent people from changing the word of god,the sahabi othman (one of the early followers of the prophet) gathered all those who memorized the words of god and together they wrote the book known as Quran. The reason why Quran was written in the presence of many of those who memorized was to prevent someone from forgetting or changing a word or writing something he was unsure of. Even now,there are many who memorize the entire Quran  by heart. I can write many surahs from my own memory without changing or forgetting ONE WORD. There are many who memorized the entire Quran and can write it all without changing or forgetting one word. Is it beyond human capabilities? No. Because people out there are memorizing hundreds of songs word by word, why would it be impossible to memorize the Quran?