Muhammad Peace be upon him

The prophet of Islam, Muhammad, peace be upon him was born in Mecca in 572 A.C.E.
He was 40 years old when he received the first Revelation from God, The Creator of heavens and earth, through the Angle Gabriel, who appeared to the Prophet in the Cave of Hira, located in a mountain in Mecca.
It was a habit of the Prophet to worship God in the Cave, away from the Idolatry environment which was prevailing in Mecca and the whole of Arabia at the time.

The following narration of the first encounter with the Angle Gabriel is extremely significant, and I will return to it again when discussing the Old Testament's prophecies concerning the Prophet of the Gentiles:....

In the Book of Bukhari, (1:1:3), Aisha, the Prophet's wife said:

("The commencement of the Divine Revelation to Allah's Messenger was in the form of good dreams which came true like bright day light, and then the love of seclusion was bestowed upon him.
He used to go in seclusion in the cave of Hira where he used to worship (Allah alone) continuously for many days before his desire to see his family. He used to take with him the journey food for the stay and then come back to (his wife) Khadija to take his food like-wise again till suddenly the Truth descended upon him while he was in the cave of Hira.
The angel came to him and asked him to read. The Prophet replied: "I do not know how to read.
The Prophet added, "The angel caught me (forcefully) and pressed me so hard that I could not bear it any more. He then released me and again asked me to read and I replied, 'I do not know how to read.' Thereupon he caught me again and pressed me a second time till I could not bear it any more. He then released me and again asked me to read but again I replied, 'I do not know how to read (or what shall I read)?' Thereupon he caught me for the third time and pressed me, and then released me and said: , 'Read in the name of your Lord, who has created (all that exists) has created man from a clot'.)m

The Quran: Words of GOD

There is only one book that says of itself, in no uncertain way, that it is purely composed of the literal "Words of God". This book is the Muslim holy book "The Quran". This book is read in the first person narrative with the speaker being God, exalted, .....

Read the following verses to get an idea of Quranic narrations:
(Quran [13: Thunder]: verse:1)
"Alif. Lam. Mim. Ra. These are verses of The Book. That which is revealed unto thee from thy Lord is the Truth, but most of mankind believe not. "

(Quran [14: Abraham]: verse 1):
"Alif. Lam. Ra. (This is) a Book which We have revealed unto thee (Muhammad) that thereby thou mayst bring forth mankind from darkness unto light, by the permission of their Lord, unto the path of the Mighty, the Owner of Praise."

Answering Theodor Nöldeke (1/2)

As promised, in my previous post, I will deal with points raised in the article by the harsh critic of Islam, Theodor Nöldeke.

An analysis of the background and motives of Nöldeke and others was written in a Cambridge University publication by Jane Dammen Mcauliffe of George Town University.

First, I will outline the major charges contained in the article and deal with them one by one. ......

The first charge is that the Quran contains within its texts discrepancies or different instructions and abrogations.
Now, discrepancies are not the same as abrogations. For any meaningful discussion of the matter, let us define both terms and explain what they mean before levelling accusations. I understand discrepancies as contradictory statements or verses speaking about the creation, the attributes of God, or the stories of previous prophets and people mentioned in the Quran. These statements are termed "Khabar" or "news" which means information about incidents that happened in the past or will happen in the future that are told to us by God in His own Words.

Now, I have not come across any one who pointed out accurately such a discrepancy in the Quran. Nöldeke himself fails to give any examples of these assumed discrepancies in his article.
Abrogations on the other hand are instructions and laws that have been changed by God at some point of time. Abrogations do exist in the Quran in a number of instances - the exact number is a matter of difference between Muslim and non Muslim scholars- but what most critics of Islam ignore, is the fact that abrogations do not in any way detract from the Divine source of the text. In fact, abrogations have occurred and are occurring throughout the history of mankind and in all revealed scriptures. I will give some examples to show that abrogations are simply a way in which God exercise his authority over his creation.

Detractors put forward the argument "How can the All Knowing, All Powerful God changes His mind about anything".
The Muslim doctrinal answer to the question is "If you believe in an All Knowing, All Powerful God, then do not object to His commands. submit to His will, and then try, and only try, to figure out the good that the new commands bring".

Now let us look at some instances of abrogations that occurred during the time of Moses and Jesus- Peace be upon them- and these are well documented in the respective scriptures.

Abrogations in the Jewish Bible:

• In the Book of Exodus 32:7-14, it is said that the Lord said to Moses he will destroy his people for worshipping the calf, but after Moses prayed for them to be shown mercy, -Quote: "Yahweh repented of the evil which he said he would do to his people"
  
  This example is fact a discrepancy as well as an abrogation, since the word used to describe the Lord action in the Hebrew Bible and also in literal translations of the Greek Bible is "repented", indicating that God Almighty has "regretted" what he intended to do to his people. Some modern scribes have changed the translation of the word "repented" to "reconsidered" to hide the discrepancy.
  
  
• Another example - again showing an abrogation and a discrepancy- is in Genesis :6, which states:
  "And the LORD repented that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart."
  So, according to this verse, the All Knowing God again repented an earlier deed.

A long list of inconsistencies in the Bible has been published by Donald Morgan.

Abrogations in the New Testament:

• In the Book of Mathew 10:5-7, Jesus sends his disciples to the children of Israel, ordering them not to preach to the gentiles.
  (These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: "5: Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans. 6: Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel. 7: As you go, preach this message: 'The kingdom of heaven is near).
  This order is abrogated later on with Mathew 28:19 "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in[a] the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit".

These examples of abrogations and inconsistencies are presented here, just to show that, abrogations are common in revealed scriptures-(though discrepancies are not and should not be present in any preserved revelation.)

//End of Part 1//

Melchizedek & the Dead Sea Scrolls

Melchizedek, a Messianic figure from the old testament is most probably a reference to the prophet of Islam, Muhammad (PBUH). Many Christian scholars admit that the description of this great prophet does not point to Jesus, but rather, to another great and later day prophet who will banish idol worship. I have collected some resources on Melchizedek which can be seen in this article ...

The following quotation, from a piece by an American blogger, demonstrates the difficulties in classical interpretations which tend to associate the Melchizedek with Jesus:
"But what is Melchizedek Priesthood? Hebrews poses problems that scholars admit cannot be answered without more information. And now a new Dead Sea Scroll fragment makes it harder to argue that Melchizedek Priesthood is limited to Christ, for Melchizedek appears as a prominent latter-day figure, Elijah-like, with a continuing role in ushering in the day of "good tidings". (Read the full post containing this quotation)