Prophecies About Prophet Muhammad ﷺ By Prophet Malachi

(Cite: Khan, Dr. (Mufti) Imran & Hamdani, Mufti Shah Rafi Uddin. (2018), Prophecies About Prophet Muhammad By Prophet Malachi , Encyclopedia of Muhammad , Seerat Research Center, Karachi, Pakistan, Vol. 1, Pg. 335-340.)

Like all the prophets , Malachi also predicted the arrival of the Holy Prophet . It is mentioned in the Holy Bible:

هَأَنَذَا أُرْسِلُ مَلَاكِي فَيُهَيِّئُ ٱلطَّرِيقَ أَمَامِي. وَيَأْتِي بَغْتَةً إِلَى هَيْكَلِهِ ٱلسَّيِّدُ ٱلَّذِي تَطْلُبُونَهُ، وَمَلَاكُ ٱلْعَهْدِ ٱلَّذِي تُسَرُّونَ بِهِ. هُوَذَا يَأْتِي، قَالَ رَبُّ ٱلْجُنُودِ. وَمَنْ يَحْتَمِلُ يَوْمَ مَجِيئِهِ؟ وَمَنْ يَثْبُتُ عِنْدَ ظُهُورِهِ؟ لِأَنَّهُ مِثْلُ نَارِ ٱلْمُمَحِّصِ، وَمِثْلُ أَشْنَانِ ٱلْقَصَّارِ. ¹

The Lord Almighty answers, “I will send my messenger to prepare the way for me. Then the Lord you are looking for will suddenly come to his Temple. The Messenger you long to see will come and proclaim my covenant.” But who will be able to endure the day when he comes? Who will be able to survive when he appears? He will be like strong soap, like a fire that refines metal.

فَهُوَذَا يَأْتِي ٱلْيَوْمُ ٱلْمُتَّقِدُ كَٱلتَّنُّورِ، وَكُلُّ ٱلْمُسْتَكْبِرِينَ وَكُلُّ فَاعِلِي ٱلشَّرِّ يَكُونُونَ قَشًّا، وَيُحْرِقُهُمُ ٱلْيَوْمُ ٱلْآتِي، قَالَ رَبُّ ٱلْجُنُودِ، فَلَا يُبْقِي لَهُمْ أَصْلًا وَلَا فَرْعًا. ²

The Lord Almighty says, “The day is coming when all proud and evil people will burn like straw. On that day they will burn up, and there will be nothing left of them.”

Commentators of the Bible say that the prediction indicates the name of two prophets, John and Jesus . ³

There is a contradiction between the commentators of the Bible, which the general reader cannot understand, but learned scholars might read it quickly. On the one hand, they call Jesus the son of God, a part of Trinity and on the contrary, wherever the prophecies related to the prophets and messengers are found they tried to apply them on Jesus as well. This prophecy states that “Who will be able to survive when he appears?”

John and Jesus neither had come over the temples nor received such a position that no one could stand in front of them? Thus John and Jesus cannot be meant in the prediction. This inevitably refers to the Prophet Muhammad only. When he conquered Makkah, “his Temple” (Ka’ba) was free on his terms and conditions.

Remember, the prophecy uses the words “His Temple” not “Solomon’s temple”. On the conquering of Makkah, all the enemies were afraid ashamed. Nobody dared to stand in front of the Holy Prophet . The Holy Prophet said to them: “What conduct do you expect from me?” the people replied: “The best! You are our merciful brother and the son of our compassionate brother.” The Holy Prophet replied:

اذھبوا فانتم الطلقاء. ⁴

Translation: “Go! You all are free.”

It is also stated that the Holy Prophet said: I would say what Joseph said,

قَالَ لَا تَثْرِيبَ عَلَيْكُمُ الْيَوْمَ يَغْفِرُ اللَّهُ لَكُمْ وَهُوَ أَرْحَمُ الرَّاحِمِينَ 92⁵

He said, “There is no reproach on you, this day! May Allah forgive you – and He is the Utmost Merciful, of all those who show mercy.”

The prophecy used the words, “He will be like strong soap, like a fire that refines metal.” indicating towards Muhammad because he removed the awful and the negative from the society of that time and cleaned it as soap cleanses the body. Moreover, due to him, the beam of truth, rise and the shadows of darkness dispersed. He was the one who purifies the nation of Arab like fire refines the metal, who were quite rigid (like metal) in their attitude and false beliefs, what they had at that time. As the Holy Quran states:

وَقُلْ جَاءَ الْحَقُّ وَزَهَقَ الْبَاطِلُ إِنَّ الْبَاطِلَ كَانَ زَهُوقًا (٨١) ⁶

And proclaim, “The Truth has arrived, and falsehood has vanished; indeed falsehood had to vanish.” (* With the arrival of the Last Prophet – Mohammed peace and blessings be upon him)

Ali Unal stated that it is stated in Barnes' Notes on the Bible that the Messenger promised in these verses is the same whom Isaiah foretold:

صَوْتُ صَارِخٍ فِي ٱلْبَرِّيَّةِ: أَعِدُّوا طَرِيقَ ٱلرَّبِّ. قَوِّمُوا فِي ٱلْقَفْرِ سَبِيلًا لِإِلَهِنَا. كُلُّ وَطَاءٍ يَرْتَفِعُ، وَكُلُّ جَبَلٍ وَأَكَمَةٍ يَنْخَفِضُ، وَيَصِيرُ ٱلْمُعْوَجُّ مُسْتَقِيمًا، وَٱلْعَرَاقِيبُ سَهْلًا. ⁷

A voice cries out, “Prepare in the wilderness a road for the Lord! Clear the way in the desert for our God! Fill every valley; level every mountain. The hills will become a plain, and the rough country will be made smooth.

Clarke’s commentary on the promised Messenger's preparing the way before the Lord is that that Messenger is a pioneer before the Lord, a corrector of civil abuses, and a preacher of righteousness. He is also the Lord, whom people seek. He will suddenly come to his temple. He shall soon be presented before the Lord in his temple; cleanse it from its defilement, and fill it with his teaching and his glory. He is the Messenger of the covenant. He comes to fulfil the covenant which God made with Abraham , through which all the families of the earth will be blessed. People will delight in him either carnally, as they please themselves with his temporal authority which will bring honour and grandeur to them, or spiritually, as he will make them joyful through knowledge, righteousness and salvation.

When we study history with an unbiased eye, we see that all these signs have been fulfilled in the personality of Muhammad and Islam. First of all, the Messenger who is promised to come and prepare the way before God, and whom Barnes identifies with the one who will establish a highway in the desert, in the wilderness for God in Isaiah 40: 3, is Muhammad . For what is first meant by wilderness or desert is Arabia or Arabah, both of which comes from the root word `Arab. It is described in Faston's Bible Dictionary, with its three parts, namely Arabia Felix, Arabia Deserta, and Arabia Petraea. It is said that Arabia is the land bounded on the west by the Isthmus of Suez and the Red Sea, on the south by the Indian Ocean, and on the east by the Persian Gulf and the Euphrates. The Holy Prophet is the prophet who was raised in Makkah in the middle of Arabia.

Secondly, Malachi mentions the promised Messenger as the Lord that is, the Lord or Master of the prophets. The original Hebrew word used here in the meaning of the Lord (of the Messengers) is Adonai, which means Lord, Master. It is one of the Names of God Almighty, but can be used for others as well. Two of the appellations frequently used for Muhammad are the Lord or Master of creation and the Lord or Master of the prophets. Being the last and universal prophet the glad tidings of whose coming all the previous prophets gave, he was being expected, sought and longed for by almost all nations. ⁸

The Messenger Will Proclaim God’s Covenant

Thirdly, the promised messenger is the messenger of the covenant. This has two meanings. One is that the Holy Quran declares that God Almighty made a covenant with the prophets and people through them that when a messenger came to them, they would believe in and help him:

وَإِذْ أَخَذَ اللَّهُ مِيثَاقَ النَّبِيِّينَ لَمَا آتَيْتُكُمْ مِنْ كِتَابٍ وَحِكْمَةٍ ثُمَّ جَاءَكُمْ رَسُولٌ مُصَدِّقٌ لِمَا مَعَكُمْ لَتُؤْمِنُنَّ بِهِ وَلَتَنْصُرُنَّهُ قَالَ أَأَقْرَرْتُمْ وَأَخَذْتُمْ عَلَى ذَلِكُمْ إِصْرِي قَالُوا أَقْرَرْنَا قَالَ فَاشْهَدُوا وَأَنَا مَعَكُمْ مِنَ الشَّاهِدِينَ (٨١) فَمَنْ تَوَلَّى بَعْدَ ذَلِكَ فَأُولَئِكَ هُمُ الْفَاسِقُونَ 81⁹

And remember when Allah took a covenant from the Prophets; “If I give you the Book and knowledge and the (promised) Noble Messenger (Prophet Mohammed – peace and blessings be upon him) comes to you, confirming the Books you possess, you shall positively, definitely believe in him and you shall positively, definitely help him”; He said, “Do you agree, and accept My binding responsibility in this matter?” They all answered, “We agree”; He said, “Then bear witness amongst yourselves, and I Myself am a witness with you.”

Since Muhammad is the last and universal prophet who is heir to all the previous prophets, God Almighty took a covenant from all the previous prophets (and messengers) and their people through their agency that they would give the glad tidings of Muhammad's advent and confirm him when he came.

The second meaning of the messenger of the covenant is that "God Almighty made a covenant with Abraham and promised him that He would make his offspring as numerous as the stars and bless humankind through them. And the sign of God's everlasting covenant with Abraham is circumcision. Whoever of the children of Abraham violates due covenant by not being circumcised; he is cut off from the children of Abraham and his religion. ¹⁰ Considering that the Jews have never been as numerous as the stars and Christians abandoned circumcision after Jesus , it is clear that the messenger of the covenant is Muhammad .

Fourthly, the promised messenger will prepare the way before the God. That is, removing all the obstacles in the way between God and His creatures, he will establish a righteouse religion, which will be smooth, easy, to walk on and protected from all danger. He will not come to repair or reform an old way, but to establish a universal and unchangeable religion for the entire mankind. Even though this religion will be the revival of the religion of Abraham , Ishmael , and other prophets , it will be a universal religion with new precepts for all humanity. As the first and foremost principle or foundation of the faith of Abraham and all other prophets is the belief in Divine Unity, the promised messenger will eradicate idolatry and establish Oneness of God.

The Lord You Are Looking For Will Suddenly Come To His Temple

Fifthly, the promised Lord (Messenger) will suddenly come to his temple. The Temple of God or the Temple is used for the place or house set apart for the worship of God or any place of worship where God ‘resides’. The temple that Malachi mentioned cannot be the Temple of Solomon because it was destroyed several times and remained desolate or in ruin for centuries. After the Muslims had conquered Jerusalem, they built a new mosque in its place or vicinity.

The promised messenger's coming to his temple suddenly means that (as stated in Barnes' Notes on the Bible) he will rout out all idolatry and smash all idols, inculcating in their former worshippers the faith in the One, True God, and will cleanse the Temple or House of God from its defilement and fill it with Divine teaching and glory in a very short time. It was only the Holy Prophet in history who established God's Religion in its universality in so short a time as 23 years. Only eight years after his emigration to Madina, he conquered Makkah without shedding blood and cleaned the Ka'ba of all the idols in it and put an end to idolatry in the whole Arabia including Palestine. He also cleansed people of superstitions, false beliefs and thoughts, and sin. He refined silver from all filth and dross and purified the whole Arabia of the contamination of adultery, alcohol, usury, and idol worship. As stated in Barnes' Notes on the Bible, he decisively distinguished between God-fearing and God-blaspheming, between those who served and did not serve God, between the righteous and the wicked. The enemy’s root was cut asunder, and the promised messenger came all of a sudden to his temple or Baitullah (The House of Allah). Such a grand and majestic sight is not to be seen in the whole life of Jesus . because according to the Gospel's record he had very few followers and was crucufued. although according to the Holy Quran, ¹¹ he was neither killed nor crucified but still, he was nit able to root out the evils from his society. It was Muhammad who managed to root out all the evils of the society by his teaching and his extra ordinary intelligence.

---

• ¹  The Bible, Malachi 3: 1-2
• ²  The Bible, Malachi 4: 1
• ³  Nathaniel Wanley (1788), Wonders of The Little World, Or A General History of a Man, C. Taylor, London, U.K, Pg. 429.
• ⁴  Ahmed Bin Al-Husain Abu Bakar Al-Baihaqi (2003), As-Sunan-ul-Kubra lil Baihaqi, Fath-e-Makka, Hadith: 18275-18276, Dar-ul-Kutub Al-‘Ilmia, Beirut, Lebanon, Vol 9, Pg. 199.
• ⁵  Holy Quran, Yusuf (Prophet Joseph) 12: 92
• ⁶  Holy Quran, Bani Israel (The Descendants of Israel) 17: 81
• ⁷  The Bible, Isaiah 40: 3-4
• ⁸  M. Fethullah Gulan (2009), The Messenger of God, Muhammad, Tughra Books, New Jersey, USA.
• ⁹  Holy Quran, Aale Imran (The Family of Imran) 3: 81
• ¹⁰
• ¹¹  Holy Quran, Al-Nisa (The Women) 4: 157