to reduce their sadness, after they returned from captivity, the prophet haggai told the children of israel a prophecy from god. it reads as follows:
"for thus says the lord of hosts; yet once more, it a little while, i will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land. and i will shake all nations, so that the treasure of all nations shall come in, and i will fill this house with glory, says the lord of hosts. the silver is mine, and the gold is mine, declares the lord of hosts. the latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former, says the lord of hosts: and in this place will i give peace, declares the lord of hosts." (haggai: 2/6-9).
this prophecy, in no doubt, is talking about the expected prophet whom abraham had promised. jacob, moses and david (pbut) had also prophesized about him.
the previous priest abdul ahad dawoud, who is an expert with ancient languages, quoted the text in hebrew and translated it as follows:
“i will shake all the whole earth, and (mehmad) will come to all the nations… and in this place i will give peace". the word "mehmad" or "hamdet" comes in the hebrew language as it comes in another new reading. it is usually used in hebrew to mean "the great wish" or "the desired", and the text according to the common hebrew translation: (fabaaou hamdat kol hagoyeem).
however if we leave the name as it is without translation (which is what is supposed to be done with names), then we will find the word "mehmad" is the hebrew pronunciation of the arabic name ahmad, which was lost by translators when they also translated names.
commenting on this, the great prominent historian william james durant said: “the word “mehmad” (the praised) was derived from praising, and it is an exaggeration of it. it seems that he was praised time after time, and possibly that some of the passages in the torah prophesized him”.[1]
the talk about the last house of god came on the completion of the prophecy, which has greater glory than the first house. then he says: "in this place i will give peace", the hebrew translation used the word "shalom" which can mean "islam", as "al salam" or peace and "al islam" derived from the same word. 1
his words: "in this place i will give peace", might be talking about the peace that covered this land, which omar bin al khatab gave to the people of jerusalem when he conquered it. the prophecy then was about providing peace and was not related to the desired prophet, because it happened at the hands of his kind followers and companions after his death.
there is no doubt that this prophecy is not talking about jesus (pbuh). there is no relationship between the prophecy’s words and his name, or between its meanings and what is known about him (pbuh). peace was not stable in jerusalem during his mission; instead, he told the jews of the destruction of the temple after a while. moreover, he was a messenger to the children of israel, and not to all nations, while the expected prophet was the desire of all nations, and was not exclusive to the house of jacob as mentioned in the description of jesus several times.
the use of the word peace or "as- salam" to mean "islam" was seen by abdul ahad dawood as needed in another passage of the holy bible. the book of luke mentions that the angels sang at the birth of jesus saying, "glory to god in the highest, and on earth peace among those whom he is pleased." (luke: 2/14).
he wonders; which peace came to earth after the birth of jesus (pbuh)? the killing continuously went on, and the wars took turns one after another until the day of judgment. therefore, the correct translation of the greek word "erena" in hebrew is "shalom", which is equal to "islam" in arabic as "al salam”.
if the christians insist on interpreting the word "erena" as peace or "al salam", then they have made jesus contradict himself, as he said: "i am come to cast fire on the earth; and would that it were already kindled? i have a baptism to be baptized with; and how great is my distress until it is accomplished! do you think that i have come to give peace on earth? no, i tell you, but rather division:" (luke: 12/49-51), and in matthew: "do not think that i have come to bring peace to the earth: i have not come to bring peace, but a sword."(matthew: 10/34).
based on that, abdul ahad dawood sees that the peacemakers are the muslims, and that is in the words of jesus: "blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the sons of god." (matthew: 5/9), so he sees that the accurate translation is "blessed the muslims", and not the imaginary peacemakers, which were not and will never exist on earth.
none of the people who belong to the different christian sects, who are fighting and disagreeing along its history, can say that peace took place in the hearts of the believers, as the ongoing hatred between them denies all that.
in the completion of the so-called angels hymn "and joy be to the people", the greek text used the word "yodekia" which is a word derived from the greek verb "dokio", and it means "nice, kind, charitable" as in the greek dictionary, it also means joy, love, satisfaction, desire, fame…
all of these expressions are valid in translating the word "yodekia", which can also be translated in hebrew to (mahmad, ma hamoud) which is extracted from the verb "hamd" praise. the word (mahmad, ma hamoud) means, “the very much desired, the cheerful, the wonderful, the loved or the gentle”. all of these agree with the meanings that come out of the word muhammad or ahmad, which are close in extraction to the two hebrew words (hemda and mehmad), such closeness indicates that they have one common root as it is always the case in many of the semitic languages.
abdul ahad dawood also alerts to the existence of this text in the greek book of luke at the time the phrases were in assyrian (arameo). it was not possible, even with a lot of effort and being honest in translation, to translate a word from one language to another, and reach the exact original meaning of the word. thus, it is impossible, with the loss of the originals, to verify the accuracy of the translation.
the correct translation for the hymn as seen by abdul ahad dawood is, "thanks to god in heavens, and submission or "islam" on earth, and ahmad to the people". 1
[1] the story of civilization, will durant.
1 an example of this is in the quran, god's words: {o you who believe! enter perfectly in islâm (by obeying all the rules and regulations of the islâmic religion)} (al-baqara: 208).
1 look in: muhammad in the holy book by: abdul ahad dawood (147-165), the bible and the cross by: abdul ahad dawood (33-55), the glad tiding of the prophet of islam in the torah and the bible by: ahmad hajazi al saqa (2/370-372).