Did Jesus prophesy the coming of Muhammad? Many Muslims believe he did. One verse in the Bible that they point to is John 14:16 where Jesus says, “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever.” The Greek word for “Counselor” is paraclete but Muslims argue that the word was originally pariclytos which could then be a reference to “Ahmad.” (According to the Quran in Sura 61:6, "Ahmad" is another name for Muhammad.) The problem with this is that in the more than 5000 Greek manuscripts of the New Testament, there is not a single use of the word pariclytos.
Furthermore, given the context of this verse, there are numerous reasons why it doesn’t work as Muslims want it to. These reasons are explained by Dr. Ron Rhodes.
Jesus identified the “Counselor” or “Comforter” as the Holy Spirit (John 14:26). This Comforter was given to Christ’s apostles (John 14:16), and would testify about Christ – not Muhammad (John 15:26). He would abide with God’s followers “forever” (Muhammad has been dead 1300 years).
Jesus affirmed that the apostles “know” the Comforter (the Holy Spirit – John 14:17), but they did not know Muhammad. The Comforter would be sent in Jesus’ name (John 14:26), but Muhammad did not come in Jesus’ name. Jesus told His apostles that the Comforter would be in “in you” (verse 17), but Muhammad was not “in” Jesus’ apostles. The Comforter would “glorify” Jesus (John 16:14), but Muhammad claimed to supersede Jesus. Further, the fulfillment of Jesus’ words took place ten days later on the day of Pentecost (Acts 1:4-5), not 600 years later in a city hundreds of miles from Jerusalem.
Learn More
Short Blog: Was Jesus Actually a Muslim Prophet?
Reference
Ron Rhodes, Reasoning from the Scriptures with Muslims (Eugene, Or: Harvest House, 2002), 63–64.