The Servant of Kedar

The portrait

Chapter 42 of Isaiah opens on a man whom God himself presents:

Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth; I have put my spirit upon him: he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench: he shall bring forth judgment unto truth. He shall not fail nor be discouraged, till he have set judgment in the earth: and the isles shall wait for his law.

Isaiah 42:1-4

Further on, the prophet calls the earth to a new song, and names those who will sing it:

Sing unto the LORD a new song, […] Let the wilderness and the cities thereof lift up their voice, the villages that Kedar doth inhabit: let the inhabitants of the rock sing, let them shout from the top of the mountains.

Isaiah 42:10-11

Kedar, also written Qedar, is the second son of Ishmael: “the firstborn of Ishmael, Nebajoth; and Kedar” (Genesis 25:13). “The rock” renders the Hebrew Sela (Ameri, p. 101).

Sami Ameri makes this the central text of the debate, since Matthew applies it to Jesus; Muslim scholars have applied it to the Prophet ﷺ since the Companions (Ameri, p. 86, 89).

What a Companion related from the Torah

Abd Allah ibn Amr described the Prophet ﷺ from the Torah: “You are My servant and My messenger; I have named you al-Mutawakkil; neither harsh nor coarse, nor clamorous in the markets” (Bukhari 2125). It is almost word for word the opening of Isaiah 42. A variant comes through Abd Allah ibn Salam, a former rabbi of Medina (research file v1, part 1).

The version of Ka’b al-Ahbar, reported among others by Abu Nu’aym, has the name Ahmad, described as God’s chosen servant, without harshness or shouting in the markets; al-Saqqar notes five points it shares with Isaiah 42 (al-Saqqar, p. 93-95).

Trait by trait

Ameri goes through the text trait by trait (Ameri, p. 89-107). The clearest first.

The servant. It is the first title the Qur’an gives the Prophet ﷺ (Ataie, lecture; Ameri, p. 89-90):

The elect. Al-Mukhtar and al-Mustafa, “the chosen one”, are among his names ﷺ (Ameri, p. 91, after Ibn Hajar).

Judgment to the Gentiles. He ﷺ is sent to all mankind (25:1; 34:28). In the Gospel of Matthew, by contrast, Jesus said: “I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matthew 15:24) (Ameri, p. 92-93).

He shall not cry, nor break the reed. Gentleness within strength: the Qur’an speaks of his gentleness ﷺ (3:159), and the hadith of Abd Allah ibn Amr calls him “not clamorous in the markets”. The Targum, the Aramaic translation, understands the bruised reed as the humble and the poor (Ameri, p. 93-95).

A law to the isles. The servant “shall not fail nor be discouraged” (Isaiah 42:4) till he has set judgment in the earth. The Prophet ﷺ governed and strove until God completed the religion (5:3), and his law has reached distant isles. W. D. Davies notes that some rabbinic circles awaited a Messiah who would bring a new Torah (Ameri, p. 95-96).

A light of the Gentiles. Isaiah says “a light of the Gentiles” (Isaiah 42:6); the Qur’an calls the Prophet ﷺ “a light-giving lamp” (33:46) (Ameri, p. 97).

Kedar. That Kedar stands for the Arabs, Ameri establishes through several witnesses. The Targum translates “desert of the Arabs” (Ameri, p. 98). Ezekiel joins “Arabia, and all the princes of Kedar” (Ezekiel 27:21). The rabbis call Arabic “the tongue of Kedar”, and both Maimonides and David Kimhi identify Kedar with Quraysh, the tribe of the Prophet ﷺ (Ameri, p. 98-101). Jesus has no link with Kedar; and only Islam has ruled the whole peninsula (Ameri, p. 97-101).

Sela. “The inhabitants of the rock” are, in Hebrew, those of Sela. Petra, or Mount Sal’ in Medina, which Yaqut mentions: either way, it is the Arab world of the mission (Ameri, p. 101-102; al-Saqqar, p. 95-96). Ataie points to this mountain of Medina, adding that God knows best (Ataie, lecture).

The idol-worshippers put to shame. “They shall be turned back, they shall be greatly ashamed, that trust in graven images” (Isaiah 42:17). The Prophet ﷺ broke the idols of the Kaaba (Ameri, p. 102-103; al-Saqqar, p. 96).

The blind led. “I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not” (Isaiah 42:16): for Ameri, the Arabs, who had received no revelation before him ﷺ (Ameri, p. 103).

The one who submits. At verse 19, the King James renders a Hebrew word, kimshullam, as “he that is perfect” (Isaiah 42:19), as does the Arabic Van Dyck, while the French of Louis Segond has the friend of God; Ameri reads it as “like a muslim”, one who submits. Hebraists lend him support: Gesenius connects the Arabic muslim to the same root, and Burney compares Meshullam with muslim (Ameri, p. 104-106). Ameri explains the blindness in the verse as the state of a people with no earlier revelation, whose prophet is unlettered (Ameri, p. 106).

Ameri’s assessment: the chapter matches the human nature of the Prophet ﷺ, his character, his surroundings, his adversaries, his victories, his lineage, and the name of those who followed him, the Muslims (Ameri, p. 107). Only one trait is missing, the time, which other prophecies supply.

Objections and their answers

“The Servant is Israel.” Isaiah does call Israel his servant: “But thou, Israel, art my servant” (Isaiah 41:8); “Thou art my servant, O Israel” (Isaiah 49:3) (research file v1, part 1). But:

• in Isaiah 42:1, the Hebrew text names no one. The names of Jacob and Israel come from the Septuagint, the Greek translation; they are absent from the Hebrew and from Qumran (al-Saqqar, p. 97);
• the traits do not fit Israel: it carried no law to the isles, and it has no link with Kedar (Ameri, p. 95-101);
• Ali Ataie accepts Israel as the immediate sense, and reads the rest as a figure of what was to come (Ataie, lecture). The site can grant this without losing anything: the traits that rule Israel out, the lineage and the land, are carried by other prophecies as well.

“Matthew applies it to Jesus.” Matthew does cite the passage for Jesus (Matthew 12:17-21), but he changes it. Isaiah says “mine elect” (Isaiah 42:1), Matthew “my beloved” (Matthew 12:18) (al-Saqqar, p. 97-98). Isaiah says: “He shall not fail nor be discouraged, till he have set judgment in the earth: and the isles shall wait for his law” (Isaiah 42:4). Matthew writes: “till he send forth judgment unto victory. And in his name shall the Gentiles trust” (Matthew 12:20-21). The constancy, the earth and the law have disappeared. The commentators Hagner and Fenton observe it: the quotation follows neither the Hebrew nor the Septuagint, and it drops two lines of Isaiah (Ameri, p. 86-89).

“Jesus too is gentle, and the light of the world.” In the Gospel of John, Jesus said: “I am the light of the world” (John 8:12). But he sent his disciples to the sheep of Israel alone (Matthew 10:5-6), and he himself held no power on earth; the gentleness of the Servant is that of a powerful man (Ameri, p. 95, 97).

Three readings to hold with caution

Other oracles of Isaiah have been read in the same way. These readings rest on a single author, or are disputed: they are echoes, not foundations.

Tema and Kedar. “The inhabitants of the land of Tema brought water to him that was thirsty, they prevented with their bread him that fled” (Isaiah 21:14); “Within a year, according to the years of an hireling, and all the glory of Kedar shall fail” (Isaiah 21:16). Al-Saqqar reads in it the Hijra, then Badr or the conquest of Mecca (al-Saqqar, p. 91-92). But this is “The burden upon Arabia” (Isaiah 21:13), an oracle of woe set in an Assyrian context (research file v1, part 1).

The victor raised from the east. “Who raised up the righteous man from the east, called him to his foot” (Isaiah 41:2). The title of victor follows the Arabic Van Dyck, where victory meets this man at his feet; the King James has “the righteous man”, and the French of Louis Segond speaks of salvation. Jeremiah calls the people of Kedar “the men of the east” (Jeremiah 49:28): al-Saqqar, alone, sees the Prophet ﷺ in this (al-Saqqar, p. 92-93).

The Prince of Peace. “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder” (Isaiah 9:6). Ali Ataie reads in it the seal of prophethood between the shoulders of the Prophet ﷺ; he reads the verb “called” as active, God naming the child “The Prince of Peace”, and recalls that the first sermon in Medina opens and closes on peace (Ataie, lecture). He himself grants that Hezekiah is its immediate sense.

We leave aside two arguments that rest only on al-Saqqar and those who relay him: the resemblance, in Hebrew script, between “whom I uphold” and the name Ahmad ﷺ, and an Armenian translation of 1666 said to have carried that name (al-Saqqar, p. 13-14, 97-98). The portrait has no need of them.

What others saw before us

• Among the Companions, Abd Allah ibn Amr and Abd Allah ibn Salam; then Ka’b al-Ahbar (research file v1, part 1; al-Saqqar, p. 93-95).
• In the ninth century, Ibn Rabban al-Tabari and Ibn Qutayba (research file v1, part 1).
• Among Christians, Adam Clarke sees in this wilderness Arabia Deserta; Dummelow’s commentary sees in this Kedar the Arab tribes; Charles Forster places Kedar in the Hijaz and finds Isaiah 42:10-11 true to its landscapes (Ameri, p. 97-101).

How this page connects to the others

• Kedar, son of Ishmael, and the blessing promised to his line: page 1.
• The unlettered one, and the book given to one who cannot read: page 2.
• Sela and Paran, one and the same region: page 5, Paran and Baca.
• Eight traits out of nine, and the time supplied by other prophecies: page 8, the convergence.
• The horsemen of Isaiah 21, which we do not retain: page 9.

Sources for this page

• Qur’an: Tanzil text (Uthmani); translation of the meaning by this site.
• Bible: King James Version.
• The description “in the Torah”: Bukhari 2125.
• Sami Ameri, al-Bishara bi-nabi al-islam fi kutub al-yahud wa-l-nasara, Takween, 2nd ed., 2021, p. 86-107.
• Munqidh al-Saqqar, Hal bashshara al-Kitab al-Muqaddas bi-Muhammad ﷺ?, al-Huda wa-l-Nur series, 5, 2023, p. 13-14, 91-98.
• Ali J. Ataie, lecture at Zaytuna College on Qur’an 7:157-158.
• Research file Annonces du Prophète ﷺ, v1.0, 14 October 2026, part 1.