The ‘M-H-M-D’ of Song of Songs 5:16

Naik claims a prophecy of Muhammad in the Bible’s Song of Solomon 5:16:

“His mouth is sweetness itself; he is altogether lovely;

This is my lover, this my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem.” (Songs 5:16)

Carefully omitting the context given above, he argues that since the Hebrew for “lovely” is מחמד (MHMD, Arabic محمد), this is a prophecy of Muhammad. Yet the above verse is part of a chapter describing a new bride’s detailed description of her husband. Furthermore, Naik’s translation would replace an adjective with a noun where it doesn’t fit:

“His mouth is sweetness itself;

he is ‘altogether Muhammad’ ( וכלו מחמדים )

It is exceedingly obvious that the correct word is ‘lovely’ here. The context of the word clearly shows that it is neither a prophecy nor a reference to Muhammad, and to claim so is to attempt to deceive. We can likewise invent similar prophecies about other people. Before and after Muhammad, two other non-Islamic prophets named Mani and Mirza Husayn Ali (‘Bahaullah) each claimed to be a prophet with a scripture claiming to be the next in the line of all the other prophets. Using Naik’s dubious methodology, we find Bahaullah (חסין) prophesied by name in Psalm 89:8 and Mani (מנּי) named specifically in eighteen places! Are we to believe that those references are actually prophecies of these two false prophets?

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