the greatest prophecy of the final prophet (muhammad, peace be upon him) in the new testament is jesus' prophecy about the paraclete. the book of john mentions this prophecy, where he says to his followers: “if you love me, you will obey what i command, and i will ask the father, and he will give you another counselor to be with you forever — the spirit of truth. the world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. but you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you . . . if anyone loves me, he will obey my teachings. the father will love him, and will come to him and make our home with him. he who does not love me will not obey my teachings. these words you hear are not my own; they belong to the father who sent me. all this i have spoken while still with you. but the counselor, the holy spirit whom the father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything i have said to you . . . i have told you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe. i will not speak with you much longer, for the prince of this world is coming. he has no hold on me-“ john 14, 15-30

in the next chapter, jesus asks his followers to sustain his commandments, and then says: “when the counselor comes, whom i will send to you from the father, the spirit of truth who goes out from the father, he will testify about me. and you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning” john 15, 26

“ all this i have told you so that you will not go astray. they will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, a time is coming when anyone who kills you will think he is offering a service to god . . . because i have said these things, you are filled with grief. but i tell you the truth: it is for your good that i am going away. unless i go away, the counselor will not come to you; but if i go, i will send him to you. when he comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment: in regard to sin, because men do not believe in me; in regard to righteousness, because i am going to the father, where you can see me no longer; and in regard to judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned. i have much more to say to you, more than you can bear. but when he, the spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. he will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. he will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you.” john 16, 1-14

in these lines, jesus spoke of the characteristics of his successor. who is that successor?

christians and “the paraclete”:

based on the following verse, christians say the holy spirit comes at pentecost: ” when the day of pentecost came; they were all together in one place. suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. they saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. all of them were filled with the holy spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the spirit enabled them.” acts 2, 1-4

the new testament ’ s chapters speak no more about what happened on the day of pentecost regarding the raising of the christ. father athnasios in his interpretation of john ’ s bible states “paraclete is the holy spirit, the counselor. 'but the counselor, the holy spirit, whom the father will send in my name' (john 14, 26) is the one who descended upon them on the day of pentecost (acts 2, 1-4) so they filled with him and went to spread the word, and he is with the church and within the believers. he is a gift with faith and baptism.”

muslims and “ the paraclete”:

muslims believe that what john mentioned about the counselor is a foreseeing of prophet muhammad, peace be upon him, because of many indications, one of which is the word “counselor” which is a new replacement of the new translations of the new testament, where the old arabic translations (1820, 1831, 1844 ad) used the latin word “paraclete” as it is. the same is done with many international translations.

in explanation to the term “paraclete”, it is a latin originated word, derived either from the word paraclytos, which means counselor, or helper, or the word peroclotos which is near the meaning of muhammad and ahmad (to be thanked).

father athnasios, bishop of bani-sowaif, in his interpretation of the book of john states “the term paraclete if manipulated can be pronounced perclyte which means “praise”, a meaning close to the meaning of ahmad”

mr. abdul-wahab al-naggar asks dr. carlo nilno (phd of ancient jewish greek literature) about the meaning of the term “perclotos”, who replies “it means the one with lots of praise”

meanwhile, what confirms the incorrectness of this translation is that the greeks were accustomed to add the letter “s” at the end of names not adjectives.

mr. abdul-ahad dawod thinks that church ’ s interpretation of the term “paraclete” (as a person whom is called to help, an intercessor, an attorney, or a mediator) is incorrect. and that the greek word “paraclete” has none of these meanings since “counselor” means “paraclov” or “paregoris” in greek, whereas an “attorney” is an arabic translation of the term “sangers”. “intercessor” and “mediator” are “meditia,”. therefore, the church ’ s refrain from the giving the meaning “praise” to any the word is some kind a misinterpretation or alteration.

dr. simpson (author of “the holy spirit, or a higher force”) states that “counselor” is not a precise translation.

all the above shows that there is a conflict between muslims and christians as to the latin origin of the term “paraclete”, as muslims believe that its origin is the term “perclotos”, and that christians have misinterpreted it in order to conceal its indication of the meaning of the name “ahmad” (the one with lots of praise). such misinterpretation is not strange or awkward for their books.  for example, “parpas” in the protestant version is “parpa” in the catholic version. the same with “mesaia – mashih” and “shelon – sheloh” and so on. “paraclete” is translated from syriac, native language of the christ. therefor similar alteration might have occurred.

to clear the distortion from this point, edwin jones in his book (the beginning of christianity) admits that “paraclete” is a sign of mohammad (may allah exalt his mention), but then covers his confession with a lame lie by saying that christians — influenced by emerging islam and islamic culture — have inserted this term to john ’ s bible.

the paraclete is a human prophet not a holy spirit:

it makes no difference whether the meaning of paraclete is “ahmad” or “ counselor”, since, in the book of john, jesus stipulated some characteristics that negate the meaning of “holy spirit”, and confirm that the paraclete was a human being sent by allah. it is very clear through deep analysis of john ’ s texts about “paraclete”.

john used some verbal senses (talking, hearing, etc): “he will speak only what he hears”. those characteristics do not apply to the “tongues of fire” that came to them on the day of pentecost, since john never mentioned that the “tongues of fire” spoke that day. besides, what the spirit does is heart inspiration while talking is a human characteristic not spiritual.

early christians believed that john was talking about a human being, that in the second century (187 a.d.) a “montenos” claimed to be the paraclete. the same during the fourth century a.d. with “many”, who chose twelve students (like jesus) in addition to seventy bishops whom he sent to the eastern countries, in a clear indication that they didn ’ t believe that the third hypostasis (holy spirit) is the paraclete.

another characteristic is that this messenger comes after jesus departs from earth, since jesus and the counselor messenger would never be together on earth, confirming once more that the counselor is not the holy spirit who supported jesus during his life. “unless i go away, the counselor will not come to you”

the holy spirit existed before jesus, and was in the students before jesus left, since it witnessed the creation of heaven and earth (genesis 1/2). it even played some role in the birth of jesus, since jesus ’ mother “ was found to be with child through the holy spirit” (matthew 1/18).

they gathered also on the day jesus was baptized “and the holy spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove” (luke 3/22). so, the holy spirit was with jesus and even before. therefore, the counselor —“ unless i go away, the counselor will not come to you” — is not the holy spirit.

another indication that the paraclete is human is that he is the same as jesus, who was human: “i ask the father to give you another counselor ” . in the greek text the word “allon” is used, which is used to indicate “another of the same kind” while the word “hetenos” is used when referring to “another of another kind”. in this sense, it would be fair to assume that the meaning is “another prophet ” since we can not presume the meaning “another holy spirit”, for there is only mention of one holy spirit.

because jews and followers of jesus will not believe the forthcoming prophet, jesus stresses that they must believe in the forthcoming prophet and follow him. “if you love me, you will obey what i command”, “i have told you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe” , and confirms his honesty by saying “ he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come”. all these commandments have no meaning if the forthcoming is the holy spirit, who descended in the form of “tongues of fire” with the effect of them knowing many languages. such an entity needs no one to prove its honesty.

according to christians, the holy spirit is equal to the father in divinity. therefore, he can speak for himself, while the forthcoming spirit of truth “will speak only what he hears”.

“ i have much more to say to you, more than you can bear. but when he, the spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth.”(john 16/12-13) this text indicates that the paraclete will be coming in a later time, since he will tell them things they can ’ t understand, for humanity is still immature to understand this complete religion that includes different aspects of life. as well, it is impossible for the students to have matured within ten days from jesus ’ ascending to heaven. no mention of such maturity was ever found in the testaments. moreover, christians mention that after the holy spirit descended, they abandoned many of their laws and commandments, which was easier than having more commandments than what they bared at jesus ’ time. contrariwise, the paraclete will bring more burdens to all weak, oppressed subjects, as allah said in surat al-muzzamel, verse 5, “verily, we shall send down to you a weighty word (i.e. obligations, legal laws, etc).”

jesus foretold that before the coming of the paraclete, “they will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, a time is coming when anyone who kills you will think he is offering a service to god,” and that was exactly what happened after the day of pentecost, oppression of all followers of jesus continued until there were almost no believers by the time islam emerged.

john mentioned that jesus told his students about characteristics of the paraclete which never applied to the holy spirit that came upon the students on the day of pentecost.  he reported jesus as saying, “he will testify about me. and you also must testify”, so, where is the holy spirit ’ s testimony about jesus? and what was it about?

whereas, muhammad (may allah exalt his mention) testified about jesus ’ innocence of claiming divinity, and also about his mother ’ s innocence of what jews accused her with: “and because of their (jews') disbelief and uttering against maryam (mary) a grave false charge “ (w:st="on" surat an-nisaa, verse156)

“ he will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you” and no one has praised jesus like muhammad (may allah exalt his mention) did when he glorified him and stipulated his honor above all creatures. non of the new testiments chapters mentioned anything about the holy spirit praising jesus on the day of pentecost when he descended in the form of tongues of fire.

jesus said that the paracelet will stay forever (his religion or commandments) while all the powers given to the students on the day of pentecost — if true — vanished with their deaths and never transferred to any of the church men. whereas, our prophet muhammad (may allah exalt his mention) stays forever with his message and religion, and that there will be no prophet or message after him.

and jesus also mentioned that the paraclete “. . . will remind you of everything i have said to you.” such a reminder is not needed after ten days from jesus ’ ascension. the new testament never mentioned that the holy spirit reminded them with anything. on the contrary, we find in lots of their texts and messages many indications of prescription and forgetting some of the details mentioned by others. whereas muhammad (peace be upon him) mentioned everything humanity may have forgotten of allah ’ s commands that ever descended upon his prophets, including jesus (peace upon him).

the paraclete has many tasks never achieved by the holy spirit on the day of pentecost: “ when he comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment.” the holy spirit never convicted anyone on the day of pentecost, that ’ s what mohammad, peace be upon him, has done regarding disbelievers and those rebellious to allah.

mr. abdul-ahad dawood thinks that jesus has interpreted “ reproving the world in regard to righteousness, because i am going to the father, where you can see me no longer. ” in other words, that he will reprove those saying that jesus was crucified, denying his surviving his enemies' terror. then he told them that they will ask for him and will not find him, for he will ascend to heaven: “my children, i will be with you only a little longer. you will look for me, and just as i told the jews, so i tell you now; where i am going, you cannot come.” (john 13/33). the forthcoming prophet will also reprove the devil and convict it with his inspiration and guidance: “and in regard to judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.”

convicting and reproving don ’ t go along with consolation; it was said that the counselor has come to the students to console them on the loss of their master and prophet. consolation is due in crises, and jesus was announcing his going and the coming of the successor.

consolation is also due on time of crises, not 10 days after (the time of holy spirit ’ s descending upon the students), and why didn ’ t this counselor offer condolences to jesus's mother in the first place?

considering all the above, the paraclete can never be the holy spirit. since all the characteristics of the paraclete tell of a prophet that will come after jesus, the same prophet moses once told of.   jesus mentioned about the paraclete that “he will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears,” and moses said the same, “i will put my words in his mouth, and will tell them everything i command” (deuteronomy 18/18).  this is a description of muhammad (may allah exalt his mention)  as allah said in surat an-najm, verses 3-5, “ nor does he speak of (his own) desire (3) it is only an inspiration that is inspired (4) he has been taught (this qur'ân) by one mighty in power (gabriel)(5).”

furthermore, everything mentioned about the paraclete is also indicated in al-qur'aan and as-sunnah, strongly pointing out muhammad (may allah exalt his mention) as the one. he was the one testifying about jesus, he was the one who knew the unknown, and he was the last prophet. allah established his religion as the true religion till judgment day.

* parts of “have the holy bible foretold about muhammad ( pbuh )? ” by dr . monqueth mahmoud el - saquar