Islam - Matthew 3:11

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Matthew 3:11: "I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire:"
Problem:: These words of John the Baptist are taken by Moslems to be a prediction of Muhammad. According to Baagil¹ the person referred to by John the Baptist could clearly not be Jesus, because if it had been Jesus then John would have followed him and become his disciple. Therefore there had to be a great prophet after Jesus, and this could only be Muhammad.
Solution:

John the Baptist was a prophet. He had a mission from God to baptize and to preach repentance to Israel. Because he submitted to the will of God (a concept which should be familiar to Moslems) he could not leave his God-given task to follow Jesus, no matter how much he would like to have done so.
In any case, John the Baptist was put into prison by Herod shortly after the start of Jesus' ministry (Matt. 11:2) and then beheaded.
Jesus did baptize people with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His disciples received the Holy Spirit and became prophets in their own right. Muhammad, on the other hand, never gave anyone else the gift of the Holy Spirit. None of his followers became a prophet. Thus Muhammad could not possibly be the person described by John the Baptist.

Footnotes:

Baagil H. M., Muslim-Christian Dialogue, (Islamic Propagation Centre International (U.K.), Birmingham, U.K., 1984), p. 50,51. Return