The readings we do not use

Why set readings aside

The Qur’an affirms that the Prophet ﷺ is mentioned in the Torah and the Gospel (7:157), and that Jesus foretold him (61:6). This affirmation depends on no particular text. It gains nothing from fragile readings, and it loses by them: the arguments drawn from the root ḥ-m-d are refuted in one line, and they weaken the others when presented alongside them (research file v1, part 1).

This site therefore sets aside, itself, what does not hold, and says why.

Haggai 2:7 and Luke 2:14

And I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come: and I will fill this house with glory, saith the LORD of hosts. The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the LORD of hosts.

Haggai 2:7-8

The reading. The word that the King James renders “desire”, ḥemdat, would be Mahmad, the Hebrew form of Ahmad ﷺ: a proper name, not to be translated. The peace promised “in this place” would be Islam, and the covenant of safety given by Umar to the people of Jerusalem. Luke 2:14 would then read “on earth Islam, toward men Ahmad” (al-Saqqar, p. 136-139, after Abd al-Ahad Dawud).

Why we set it aside. In Hebrew the verb is plural, they shall come, and the noun is a collective, the treasures, which the next verse spells out: “The silver is mine, and the gold is mine” (Haggai 2:7-8). In the King James, the desire of all nations shall come, neither point shows. The context is the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem (Haggai 2:9; research file v1, part 1). Al-Saqqar answers neither the plural nor the following verse, and his application aims at an event later than the death of the Prophet ﷺ (al-Saqqar, p. 137). The reading of Luke 2:14 depends on this one, and falls with it. The name of the Prophet ﷺ is carried more surely by the Qur’an itself: Ahmad ﷺ, the most worthy of praise (61:6; Ameri, p. 207-209).

The Song of Solomon 5:16

The reading. “His mouth is most sweet: yea, he is altogether lovely” (Song of Solomon 5:16): the Hebrew word rendered altogether lovely, maḥamaddim, would be the name of Muhammad ﷺ.

Why we set it aside. It is a common noun meaning desirable things, in the plural, and the Bible uses it elsewhere for objects: “whatsoever is pleasant in thine eyes” (1 Kings 20:6); “all her pleasant things” (Lamentations 1:10; research file v1, part 1). Ali Ataie, who mentions this passage, himself presents it as a poetic reading, not as a proof (Ataie, lecture). Al-Saqqar does not use it.

The Gospel of Barnabas

The reading. This book names Muhammad ﷺ and has Jesus foretell his coming. Al-Saqqar cites it once, as mere support, for the birthright of Ishmael (al-Saqqar, p. 54).

Why we set it aside (research file v1, part 2, following Jan Joosten for the manuscripts):

• it exists only in two late manuscripts: one Italian, from the end of the 16th century, in Vienna; the other Spanish and incomplete, from the 18th century, found in Sydney in 1976;
• it places a jubilee every hundred years, a practice born in 1300;
• above all, Jesus there denies being the Messiah, in chapters 42 and 96, whereas the Qur’an calls him by that name:

A Muslim does not lean on a book that contradicts the Qur’an. Sami Ameri inclines towards a forgery composed in the Islamic period (Ameri, p. 10, note 1). And the point that al-Saqqar draws from it holds without it: in Genesis, God says to Abraham “thy son, thine only son” (Genesis 22:2), and the Law protects the right of the firstborn (Deuteronomy 21:15-17), as page 1 shows.

Letter calculations

The reading. Each Hebrew letter has a value; the letters of a word are added up to find in it the name of the Prophet ﷺ. In the 12th century, Samaw’al al-Maghribi found 92 in the words that the King James renders “exceedingly” in Genesis 17:20, as in the name מחמד. Al-Saqqar adds a calculation on the words “a great nation”, and makes Elijah a coded name: Iliya would be worth 53, like Ahmad ﷺ (al-Saqqar, p. 51, 140).

Why we set it aside. A method without rules finds what it is looking for. Al-Saqqar himself mocks those who find the USSR or Kissinger in the Bible through riddles and the values of letters (al-Saqqar, p. 14). Sami Ameri says that he cannot vouch for the method (Ameri, p. 142-143). We keep the calculation of Samaw’al as a fact of history, the reading of a Jewish scholar who became a Muslim, without making it a proof (page 1). The reading of Elijah, moreover, forces one to accuse the text of the Gospels; we follow Ali Ataie, for whom John the Baptist comes in the spirit of Elijah (page 7).

The Testament of Moses and the Apocalypse of Abraham

These two Jewish texts, outside the Bible, have been used to calculate the date of the coming of the Prophet ﷺ.

The reading of the Testament of Moses. This book, known from a 6th-century Latin manuscript discovered in Milan in 1861, foretells that after 250 “times” a messenger will avenge the faithful, and that the idols will be destroyed (Ameri, p. 187-188; research file v1, part 2). Read as weeks of years, these times make 1,750 years after the death of Moses. Sami Ameri thus arrives at the second half of the 6th century; al-Saqqar, at the year 567, close to the birth of the Prophet ﷺ (Ameri, p. 188-189; al-Saqqar, p. 79-80).

Why we set it aside.

• In the text itself (Testament of Moses 10:7), it is God who arises and destroys the idols of the nations; the messenger is most often identified with the angel Michael (research file v1, part 2).
• The calculation assumes that “time” means a week of years, and adopts a late date for Moses (research file v1, part 2).
• The two authors do not start from the same date: Ameri places the death of Moses within the forty years that follow the death of Ramesses II or of Merneptah, around 1214 or 1203 BCE; al-Saqqar sets it at 1183 (Ameri, p. 188-189; al-Saqqar, p. 79-80). A calculation that gives two results depending on the author proves nothing.
• Al-Saqqar himself holds it to be an apocryphal book, not a sacred one, which he cites outside his subject (al-Saqqar, p. 79-80).

The Apocalypse of Abraham. This Jewish book, from the 1st century BCE or CE, preserved in Slavonic, foretells that a man will come forth from the side of the nations twelve “hours” after the burning of the Temple. Taking one hour for a hundred years, Ameri counts 1,200 years from 586 BCE and arrives at 614, whereas the mission of the Prophet ﷺ begins in 610 (Ameri, p. 191-192). The conversion of hours into centuries is arbitrary, the result misses the date, and Ameri only summarizes Faysal al-Kamili, to whom he refers the reader for the objections (Ameri, p. 191).

Neither of them is the Torah or the Gospel of which the Qur’an speaks (7:157).

The riders of Isaiah 21

The reading. Isaiah’s watchman sees “a chariot of asses, and a chariot of camels” (Isaiah 21:7): the rider on the ass and the rider on the camel would be Jesus and Muhammad ﷺ. Amr ibn al-Layth put this forward around 900 (research file v1, part 1).

Why we set it aside. The vision foretells the fall of Babylon: “Babylon is fallen, is fallen” (Isaiah 21:9; research file v1, part 1). None of the three authors this site follows takes up this reading, and al-Saqqar reads this chapter without it (al-Saqqar, p. 91-92). The oracle that follows, on Tema and Kedar (Isaiah 21:13-17), is another matter, which we keep with caution (page 3).

Texts that are not biblical

In the 20th century, some authors looked for the Prophet ﷺ in the Scriptures of India, of Persia and of Buddhism. Specialists in these texts refute them (research file v1, part 2):

Sami Ameri lays down the rule: accept no prophecy drawn from books that are neither Jewish nor Christian, so long as it is not known that they are older than the mission of the Prophet ﷺ (Ameri, p. 10, note 1).

What this sifting shows

On the prophecies we keep, almost every objection has found its answer. Those that remain open concern readings held with caution or set aside here: the Assyrian context of Isaiah 21, the plural in Haggai, the God who arises in the Testament of Moses.

Setting these readings aside costs the thesis nothing: none of them adds a trait that the prophecies we keep do not already carry. The lineage, the land, the time and the traits of the Prophet ﷺ are carried by surer texts (the convergence).

How this page connects to the others

• The method: page 0, What the Qur’an affirms.
• Samaw’al and the only son: page 1, The prayer of Abraham.
• Tema and Kedar: page 3, The Servant of Kedar.
• The name Ahmad ﷺ: page 4, The Paraclete.
• The date of the coming: page 6, The time.
• Elijah and John the Baptist: page 7, The kingdom taken away and given.
• What we keep: page 8, The convergence.

Sources for this page

• Qur’an: Tanzil text (Uthmani); translation of the meaning by this site.
• Bible: King James Version.
• Sami Ameri, al-Bishara bi-nabi al-islam fi kutub al-yahud wa-l-nasara, Takween, 2nd ed., 2021, p. 10, 142-143, 187-192, 207-209.
• Munqidh al-Saqqar, Hal bashshara al-Kitab al-Muqaddas bi-Muhammad ﷺ?, al-Huda wa-l-Nur series, 5, 2023, p. 14, 51, 54, 79-80, 91-92, 136-140.
• Ali J. Ataie, lecture at Zaytuna College on Qur’an 7:157-158.
• Jan Joosten, “The Gospel of Barnabas and the Diatessaron”, Harvard Theological Review, 2002 (Cambridge).
• R. C. Hazra, Studies in the Puranic Records, 1940.
• Research file Annonces du Prophète ﷺ, v1.0, 14 October 2026, parts 1 and 2.