The Paraclete, the good tidings of Jesus

The good tidings of Jesus

The Qur’an relates that Jesus foretold a messenger after him:

The Gospel of John keeps, in the farewell words of Jesus, the promise of another who is to come:

Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.

John 16:7

And further on:

I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come. He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you.

John 16:12-14

“Comforter” renders the Greek parakletos. The word means first of all the defender, the advocate, the one called to one’s aid; according to Johannes Behm, the sense of comforter fits none of its uses in the New Testament (Ameri, p. 195-196). The King James itself renders it “advocate” when it is applied to Jesus: “we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (1 John 2:1).

The traits of the Paraclete

Sami Ameri, Ali Ataie and Munqidh al-Saqqar read these verses trait by trait, and reach the same conclusion: these are the traits of a man, and of a prophet (Ameri, p. 210-216; Ataie, p. 73-82; al-Saqqar, p. 155-159).

He comes only if Jesus goes away

“If I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you” (John 16:7). Yet the Holy Spirit is already at work before Jesus and during his life. John the Baptist “shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother’s womb” (Luke 1:15); of Simeon it is said that “the Holy Ghost was upon him” (Luke 2:25); and in the Gospel of John, Jesus breathes on his disciples: “Receive ye the Holy Ghost” (John 20:22). The one who comes only after the departure of Jesus is therefore not the Spirit already present (Ataie, p. 73-75; Ameri, p. 197-198, 215-216; al-Saqqar, p. 156).

Another, like Jesus

In the Gospel of John, Jesus says: “I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter” (John 14:16). The Greek allos marks another of the same kind (al-Saqqar, p. 156-157). Since Jesus himself is called parakletos, this other is a man like him, not another god nor another spirit (Ataie, p. 79-80).

He will speak what he hears

“He shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak” (John 16:13). This is the biblical definition of a prophet (Ameri, p. 212), and the trait of the prophet promised to Moses: “and will put my words in his mouth” (Deuteronomy 18:18). Al-Saqqar himself links the two texts to what the Qur’an says of the Prophet ﷺ: “He does not speak out of his own desire” (53:3) (al-Saqqar, p. 157, 161). If the Paraclete were God, why would he speak only what he hears (Ataie, p. 80-81)? And he will show “things to come” (John 16:13): the Prophet ﷺ left prophecies that reach to the Last Day (Ameri, p. 212), gathered in part 4.

He will glorify Jesus

“He shall glorify me” (John 16:14); “he shall testify of me” (John 15:26). No one has honoured Jesus more than the Prophet ﷺ: the Qur’an clears him of the claim to divinity attributed to him, and defends his mother against slander (4:156) (Ameri, p. 212-215; al-Saqqar, p. 158-159). The one Jesus foretold is the one who defends Jesus.

He will reprove the world, and bring what could not be borne

The Paraclete “will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment” (John 16:8): this is the authority to reprove, which the Prophet ﷺ exercised towards Jews and Christians (Ameri, p. 215). The Arabic Van Dyck also has a verb of reproof here; the French of Louis Segond has one that means to convince. He brings what the disciples could not yet bear: “ye cannot bear them now” (John 16:12); a weighty word, as the Qur’an says of its own revelation: “a weighty word” (73:5) (al-Saqqar, p. 157-158).

He abides

He is to abide with them “for ever” (John 14:16). The disciples did not live for ever: it is his message that abides, like that of the Prophet ﷺ, which no law has abrogated (Ameri, p. 217; al-Saqqar, p. 158-159).

What the Qur’an says: Ahmad ﷺ

The Qur’an names the one Jesus foretold: Ahmad (61:6). The word is a superlative: the one who praises God most, or the one who is most praised (Ameri, p. 202, after al-Shawkani). The Prophet ﷺ counted it among his names: “I have five names: Muhammad, Ahmad…” (Bukhari 3532).

Ibn Ashur shows that “name”, in this verse, carries three senses at once: the most praised person, the most praiseworthy renown, and the name Muhammad ﷺ, “the much praised” (Ameri, p. 207-209). Ali Ataie adds that parakletos is not the exact equivalent of a proper name: it is a title, which describes one of the roles of Ahmad ﷺ, that of intercessor (Ataie, p. 71-72).

The prophecy, then, does not depend on a Greek word: it rests on the portrait. Ameri says so himself: even without any alteration of the text, it is enough to examine the traits of the Paraclete (Ameri, p. 209-210).

Objections and their answers

“John himself says that the Paraclete is the Holy Spirit.” He does write: “the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name” (John 14:26). But:

• the verse has variants. The Sinaitic Syriac, a manuscript of the fourth century, reads “the Spirit” without “Holy”, and the commentator C. K. Barrett judges that this shorter reading could be the original (Ameri, p. 219-222). Ataie finds that these words read like an inserted aside, while acknowledging that no manuscript omits them (Ataie, p. 77-78);
• the New Testament calls the prophets “spirits”: “try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world” (1 John 4:1) (Ameri, p. 216; al-Saqqar, p. 161);
• above all, the traits remain: the Spirit already present cannot be the one who comes only after the departure of Jesus.

“Montanus and Mani already claimed to be the Paraclete.” True, before Islam (research file v1, part 1). But the argument turns around: a man, then, was awaited (Ataie, p. 79-80; al-Saqqar, p. 155; Ameri, p. 199). Critics cited by Raymond Brown, such as Bultmann, even think that the Paraclete was at first a distinct figure, later merged with the Spirit (Ameri, p. 197). And his message must abide: Mani’s very name is lost, and his religion with it (Ataie, p. 81-82).

“He was to come in the lifetime of the disciples, since they know him.” In the Gospel of John, Jesus says: “ye know him; for he dwelleth with you” (John 14:17). But speaking to those present does not mean a fulfilment within their lifetime: in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus says to the chief priests “Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power” (Matthew 26:64) (Ameri, p. 217-219; al-Saqqar, p. 161-165).

“It is Jesus who sends him; but Muhammad ﷺ is sent by God.” In the Gospel of John, Jesus says: “I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter” (John 14:16), and speaks of the Paraclete “whom the Father will send in my name” (John 14:26). Jesus prays; the Father gives and sends (Ameri, p. 217; al-Saqqar, p. 161-165).

“You keep the Paraclete of John, but reject his ‘I am’ sayings.” Ataie answers with a rule. What the first three Gospels say and John leaves out prevails, unless they are manifestly in error; the only such case is the imminent return of Christ, which events did not confirm, and John answers it with the Paraclete. That tradition therefore takes precedence, whereas the “I am” sayings, found only in John, give way before the other three (Ataie, p. 67-69).

“Ibn Ishaq adapted the text of John.” Sean Anthony shows this (research file v1, part 1). But the argument of Ameri and al-Saqqar does not depend on Ibn Ishaq: it rests on the Gospel of John as it is read today.

What others saw before us

• Muqatil ibn Sulayman (d. 767) already links the Paraclete with Ahmad ﷺ; Ibn Ishaq cites a passage from these chapters of John from an Aramaic version (research file v1, part 1).
• Rahmatullah al-Hindi answers the objections of the missionary Pfander (al-Saqqar, p. 161-165).
• Syriac lectionaries read “Munahma”, and William Muir mentions Arabic translations of John, from the eighth and ninth centuries, that read “Ahmad”, wrongly in his view (Ataie, p. 72-73).

How this page connects to the others

• The word received, like that of the prophet promised to Moses: page 2.
• The time, after Jesus and in the age of Rome; Shiloh, the intercessor: page 6.
• The one whom John the Baptist foretells, “after me”: page 7, the kingdom taken away and given.
• Were the Paraclete taken away, the portrait would remain whole: page 8, the convergence.
• The objection “the Paraclete is the Holy Spirit”: Objections answered.

Sources for this page

• Qur’an: Tanzil text (Uthmani); translation of the meaning by this site.
• Bible: King James Version.
• The five names of the Prophet ﷺ: Bukhari 3532.
• Sami Ameri, al-Bishara bi-nabi al-islam fi kutub al-yahud wa-l-nasara, Takween, 2nd ed., 2021, p. 195-222.
• Munqidh al-Saqqar, Hal bashshara al-Kitab al-Muqaddas bi-Muhammad ﷺ?, al-Huda wa-l-Nur series, 5, 2023, p. 152-165.
• Ali J. Ataie, Finding Muhammad in the New Testament, master’s thesis, Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, 2011, p. 67-82; and his lecture at Zaytuna College on Qur’an 7:157-158.
• Research file Annonces du Prophète ﷺ, v1.0, 14 October 2026, part 1.