According to the Bible, God said to Moses, on whom be peace: " I will raise upfor them a prophet like you from among their brothers, I will put my words inhis mouth, and he will tell them 'everything I command him" (The Holy Bible, NewInternational Version, Deuteronomy chapter 18, verse 18).
The prophet described in the above verse must have the following threecharacteristics:
1. He will be like Moses.
2. He will come from the brothers of the Israelites, i.e. the Ishmaelites.
3. God will put his words in the mouth ofthe prophet and he will declare what God commanded him .
Let us see which prophet God was speaking of:
The prophet like Moses
Some people feel that thisprophecy refers to the prophet Jesus, on whom be peace. But, although Jesus(peace be upon him and all of God's prophets and messengers) was truly a prophetof God, he is not the prophet spoken of here. He was born miraculously, andfinally God raised him up miraculously. On the other hand, Muhammad is more likeMoses; both were born in a natural way and both died natural deaths.
From among the Ishmaelite
Abraham had two sons, Ishmael andIsaac (Genesis, chapter 21). Ishmael became the grandfather of the Arab nation.And Isaac became the grandfather of Jewish nation. The prophet spoken of was tocome not from among the Jews themselves, but from among their brothers, theIshmaelite. Muhammad a descendant of Ishmael, is indeed that prophet.
God will put his words in his mouth
" Neither the content of therevelation, nor its form, were of Muhammad's devising. Both were given by theangel, and Muhammad's task was only to repeat what he heard" (Word Religionsfrom Ancient history to the Present, by Geoffrey Parrinder, p.472).God sent the angel Gabriel to teach Muhammad the exact wordsthat he should repeat to the people. The words are therefore not his own; theydid not come from his own thoughts, but were put into his mouth by the angel.These are written down in the Qur'an word for word, exactly as they came fromGod.Now that we know that prophet we must listen to him,for, according to the Bible, God says: 'I will punish anyone who refuses to obeyhim' (Good News Bible, Deut. 18:19).