1. Introduction

According to the Qur’ān, the establishment of religious truths rests on two key pillars: (1) the innate moral insight (fitrah) with which every human being instinctively discriminates between truth and falsehood—with assistance from reason and empirical observation—and (2) divine revelation, serving as external corroboration of these innate truths, which culminated in the Qur’ān as the ultimate expression of prophetic testimony.[1] The Qur’ān utilizes the former to substantiate core tenets such as the existence of God and the concept of the Hereafter. The latter, by referencing past prophecies and their subsequent fulfilment, serves to validate the prophetic tradition itself. This methodology underscores the consistent nature of the prophetic mission, wherein subsequent prophets fulfil the pronouncements of their predecessors, thereby affirming the continuity of the divine message and demonstrating a single, unifying divine will throughout history. A central tenet of Islamic faith, as articulated in the Qur’ān, is the acceptance of all prophets without distinction; rejection of one is tantamount to rejection of all. The Qur’ān reveals that God has raised prophets among all communities throughout history, guiding them towards the path of truth. While the Qur’ān provides us with the names of some of these prophets, the majority remain unnamed within its text.^[2] This underscores the importance of acknowledging and embracing truth wherever it may be found, regardless of source or tradition.

This study explores a prophecy traditionally attributed to the biblical prophet Isaiah (pbuh) and its interpretation within the Islamic tradition as foretelling the advent of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh). This investigation began with an earlier article in which I explored the congruence between the figure described in Isaiah 42 and the characteristics and historical context of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh). My subsequent engagement with the works of the contemporary Muslim scholar Jāved Ahmad Ghāmidi illuminated a significant divine principle governing the mission of all divine messengers (rusul), as understood within the Qur’ānic framework. This principle, often referred to as Qānūn Itmām al-Ḥujjah (Law of Completion of Proof) or Qānūn Risālah (Law concerning the Messengers)—subsumed within the Sunan of God[3]—has been the subject of increasing scholarly attention within Muslim intellectual circles. While precursors can be found in earlier scholarship, its systematic articulation and development are largely attributed to the work of Imām Hamiduddin Farāhī (d. 1930), a prominent Qur’ānic scholar from the Indian subcontinent. This concept was further elaborated upon by his student, Imām Amīn Ahsan Islāhī (d. 1999), and refined by Islāhī's student, Jāved Ahmad Ghāmidi. Examining this “law” prompted a reassessment of Isaiah 42, revealing deeper layers of meaning and enabling a more nuanced exegesis. This book aims to offer readers a fresh perspective on interpreting this biblical prophecy.

Mushafiq Sultan

Assistant Fellow, Al-Mawrid

1.1. Isaiah 42 and the Muslim Tradition

The Qur’ān asserts that existing Jewish and Christian scriptures contain clear prophecies foretelling the advent of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), urging adherents of these faiths to embrace and support him. This assertion is exemplified in many passages of the Qur’ān.^[4] While the passage in Qur’ān 7:157 claims that contemporary Jewish and Christian communities could identify Muhammad (pbuh) within their sacred texts, it raises a pivotal question: where did the contemporaries of Muhammad (pbuh) locate such references? Several reports exist that offer some insight into this matter. Select relevant narrations are cited below:

Abdullāh ibn 'Amr ibn al-'Ās reported being asked about the description of the Prophet (pbuh) in the Torah, to which he replied, "Yes. By God, he is described in the Torah with some of the qualities attributed to him in the Qur’ān, such as: 'O Prophet! We have sent you as a witness and a giver of glad tidings, and a warner...' (Qur’ān 48:8) and guardian of the Ummiyyīn. You are My Servant and My Messenger. I have named you 'Al-Mutawakkil' (who depends upon God). You are neither discourteous, harsh nor a noise-maker in the markets. And you do not do evil to those who do evil to you, but you deal with them with forgiveness and kindness. God will not let him (the Prophet) die till he makes straight the crooked people by making them say: 'None has the right to be worshipped but God,' with which will be opened blind eyes and deaf ears and enveloped hearts.^[5]

Al-Dārimi narrated on the authority of Ata’ on the authority of Ibn Salām and similarly on the authority of Ka’b, who was one of the Jewish scholars who believed in the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace:

Kaʿb said: In the first line [of the Torah]:

Muhammad is the Messenger of God, My chosen servant. He is neither harsh nor hard-hearted, nor does he shout in the marketplaces. He does not repay evil with evil, but rather forgives and overlooks. His birthplace is in Makkah, his migration is to Ṭaybah (Madīnah), and his rule will be in al-Shām (Greater Syria).

And in the second line:

Muhammad is the Messenger of God. His community includes those who constantly praise God. They praise God in ease and in hardship. They praise God in every station, and they glorify Him upon every elevated place. They follow the sun [in determining prayer times], and they pray when the time for prayer arrives—even if they are atop a heap of refuse. They tie their garments around their waists, and they perform ablution on their limbs. Their voices in the night are like the buzzing of bees in the open air.[6]

It is within these hadith references— particularly the descriptions of a chosen servant who neither acts harshly nor raises his voice in the streets and who treats adversaries with forbearance— that we see striking echoes of Isaiah 42’s opening verses. In Isaiah’s prophecy, we encounter a divinely appointed figure referred to as the “Servant” (often referred to as the “Servant of the Lord”) who is said to bring forth judgement and yet does not “cry out or raise his voice in the streets” (Isaiah 42:2). The parallels in both tone and content are compelling: the Servant is depicted as mild and patient with his opponents, charged with guiding people towards truth. Early Muslims, especially Jewish converts like Abdullāh bin Salām^[7] and Kaʿb al-Aḥbār,^[8] seem to have recognised these shared qualities. It is plausible that the Prophet's companions drew upon existing Arabic paraphrases of the Targumim^[9] for these citations. This alignment of character traits suggests that Isaiah 42 was among the primary scriptural texts through which they identified the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) in the Jewish tradition.

In several hadith reports, the Prophet’s companions highlighted how the Prophet’s emphasis on mercy, his condemnation of injustice, and his unwavering adherence to monotheism resonated with the biblical portrayal of the Servant in Isaiah tasked with establishing a just order. The hadith statements not only match Isaiah’s portrayal of moral conduct— He “will not break a bruised reed” (Isa. 42:3)—but also reinforce the Prophet Muhammad’s role as a unifier of monotheistic faiths, fulfilling the promise of guidance for “the isles,” or distant regions. These textual parallels, seen through the lens of early Islamic scholarship, bolstered the conviction that the Prophet’s advent was the fulfilment of this ancient Hebrew prophecy.

Muslim scholars throughout history have also interpreted this prophecy as referring to the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh). However, my analysis of Isaiah 42 and its fulfilment in the person of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) focuses primarily on a distinct theological concept discussed in the Qur’ān: an established divine practice (Sunnat Allāh)[10] concerning God’s chosen Messengers (Rusul). This concept, deeply embedded within the text of Isaiah 42, provides a framework for understanding the central task assigned to the prophesied figure. Building upon this foundation, I offer a detailed, verse-by-verse exegesis of Isaiah 42, attempting to demonstrate its alignment with the life and mission of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) through references to the Qur’ān and authentic hadith traditions.

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1.2. Textual Witnesses

This section explores the key textual traditions of the Hebrew Bible, focusing on the Masoretic Text (MT), the Septuagint (LXX), and the Targums as principal textual witnesses.

The Cambridge Companion to the Hebrew Bible/Old Testaments provides the following information about the Masoretic Text (MT) and the Septuagint (LXX) from the extant textual sources of the Hebrew Bible:

The Masoretic Text (MT)

"The traditional text of the Hebrew Bible is named the Masoretic Text because of the masora, or body of notes regarding its copying and reading, that was compiled to assist in transmitting it accurately. The MT consists of two parts: the consonantal component, which was the only element at first and which rests on much earlier manuscripts, and the vowels, accents, cantillation marks, and other notes that were added to the consonants by medieval Jewish experts called the Masoretes. The earliest copies of the MT or parts of it date from the ninth and tenth centuries CE or shortly after: the Cairo Codex of the Prophets was copied in 896 CE, the Aleppo Codex (about three-quarters of the Hebrew Bible is preserved in the damaged copy) in c. 925 CE, and the Leningrad Codex (the entire Bible) in 1009 CE." ... "The MT, which has been the Bible of Jews the world over since the Middle Ages, is a truly admirable production, the fruit of the labors of remarkable experts who went to extraordinary lengths to ensure the accuracy of the transmission of the text and to record its many special features." ... "While there is no question about the impressive nature of the MT and the precision that characterised the copying of it, a different question is whether the wording of text so carefully preserved in it is the best Hebrew text attainable for these books. Experts agree that the question of the quality of the text must be examined book by book; in some cases, the MT preserves a careful, ancient form of the text (e.g., in Exodus); in others, it does not (e.g., the books of Samuel)."[11]

The Septuagint (LXX)

"The books of the Hebrew Bible were translated into the Greek language by Jewish scholars in the last three centuries BCE. There is no reliable information regarding when translating work began. A work entitled, The Letter of Aristeas, offers a story about the project for translating the books of the Law (Genesis through Deuteronomy) in the time of King Ptolemy II Philadelphus (283–246 BCE); it claims that seventy-two bilingual Jews from Palestine travelled at royal invitation and expense to Alexandria, Egypt, for the purpose of translating the books of the Law into Greek – a task they completed in seventy-two days." ... "There are citations from a Greek translation of parts of the Bible beginning around 200 BCE; consequently, translating work of some sort began before that time." ... "The earliest form of the LXX is called the Old Greek, and that Old Greek translation was later to be subjected to various kinds of revisions, often to bring it into closer conformity with a Hebrew text."

"Some extant witnesses of the Greek translation are therefore much older than the earliest manuscripts of the MT." ... "The Old Greek was rendered from Hebrew sources, but it is not always possible to retrovert that Hebrew source with confidence."[12]

Regarding the Targums, it states:

The Targums

“The word targum means “translation” and refers to Aramaic renderings of the books of the Hebrew Bible, a language widely used by Jewish communities during the Second Temple period. "Little is known about the early history of the Targums (e.g., whether they were at first only oral and later reduced to writing), but some have been found among the Dead Sea Scrolls – a fact demonstrating that written forms of the Targums existed in pre-Christian times." ... "There are several different Targums for the books of the law (Targum Pseudo-Jonathan, Targum Neofiti, the Fragment Targum, and Targum Onkelos), one for the Prophets (Targum Jonathan), and later translations of most of the Writings (except the ones with Aramaic sections in them [Ezra, Daniel])."

The Targums are significant for textual studies as they were based on Hebrew texts. However, they also hold value for the history of interpretation, as "at times they expand on or otherwise alter their models in exegetical ways."[13]

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1.3. Structure of the present work

This study of Isaiah 42 will look at the Masoretic Text (MT), the Septuagint (LXX), and the Targum Jonathan comparatively, focusing on variations or subtleties that significantly affect interpretation. The MT, as is the canonical Hebrew text, will be the main source. The LXX, an early Greek translation, shows a different textual tradition and often makes differences in interpretation clearer. The Targums, which include Aramaic translations and explanations, provide insights into Jewish understanding and interpretation of the text throughout the Second Temple period. We will use these sources carefully together to bring forth important interpretive options and to add depth to the analysis of this important chapter.

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