The Muslim claim that Muhammad is prophesied in the Bible is inconsistent with the Muslim rejection of the Bible
The Qur'an claims that it and Muhammad are found in the previous Scripture. This has been a central idea in Islam since it was founded. Of course, this has led to Muslims interpreting many Biblical passages as being about Muhammad. Critics have responded to these claims, however, in this post, I would like to point out that we can criticize the mere idea that Muhammad can be found in the Bible too, not just the specific Muslim interpretations of some Biblical passages.
As you may know, Muslims today believe that the Bible is corrupted and unreliable.
Many have found it suspicious that the same book that is supposed to witness to Muhammad is corrupted and reliable. If it is generally unreliable, why is it reliable in this aspect?
Muslims might attempt to solve this problem by claiming that the specific prophecies prove themselves to be exempt from the corrupted part by prophesying the future. However, there is still a huge problem.
In order for a prophecy to be meaningful, we have to know what its words mean.
For example, in the case of the prophecy of Paraclete:
When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment:
- John 16:8
Now I'm asking a simple question: how do we know what words such as "righteousness" mean here? After all, if we can't establish what the words of a prophecy mean, it's meaningless.
Naturally, one would go to the same book to see what it says righteousness is, and will find that it contradicts what righteousness means in Islam, since, of course, the Bible contradicts Islam.
The Muslim will say that the parts which define righteousness as something that contradicts Islam are false, and this is where the problem begins.
If I can't trust the book itself to tell me what it means by its words, it's basically meaningless, because we cannot verify what exactly it's talking about. I cannot, for example, verify what "this prophet will be righteous" means if it says it, because I don't know what it means by "righteous". There are many different religious ideas of righteousness. To the Book itself, it means something that contradicts Islamic theology.
In that case, the only one who is telling us what it means is the one who claims to fulfil a prophecy found in it, which is obviously circular. He's practically making the prophecy by being the one who ascribes meaning to the prophecy he's claiming to fulfil.
If the prophecy is meaningless, then I can't find anyone in it. There is no non-circular way to confirm what it means by its words.
Summary
To prove that we can find Muhammad in the Bible, the Muslim has to presuppose that its words, such as "righteousness", have a meaning that matches Islam, which he then tries to prove on the basis of the idea that Muhammad fulfilled the prophecy, which is circular reasoning. Therefore, we can't find Muhammad in the Bible.
Thank you for reading!