Muslims
believe that the Quran is the Last Testament of Allah and it is the
confirmation and completion of the Guidance of Allah to humanity contained in
the previous Books.
Muslim
scholars have noted clear and undeniable prophecies found in the Bible (both
Jewish and Christian) about the coming of the final prophet. When these verses
are quoted, the usual response of many Jews and Christians is a staunch denial
of any such possibility.
And among
those who have cared to examine the Muslim evidences were unbiased persons who
were eventually convinced of the truth of Islam and have subsequently become
Muslims.
As you have
said, one of these prophetic verses is from the Song of Solomon. Before we
explain the context and meaning of the quoted verse, we need to understand the
subject of the Song of Solomon, and why it is considered a holy book inspired
by God Almighty.
Here, I quote
the learned view of a Christian Bible scholar on the Song of Solomon:
"This
book has received more varied interpretations than perhaps any other book in
the Bible. Some writers believe it presents the reader with the "greatest
hermeneutical challenge in the Old Testament. One excellent exegete called it
"the most obscure book in the Old Testament" (Franz Delitzsch: Biblical
Commentary on the Song of Songs and Ecclesiastes, quoted by Dr Thomas L.
Constable in his Notes on Song of
Solomon)
There is no
doubt that the Song of Solomon has a unique place among the books of the Bible.
Because, it is a love poem. Naturally, no one expects a love poem to be part of
the Book revealed by God Almighty. Let us consider this question from the
Christian point of view:
The Christian
scholars quote the following verse from Paul's Second Epistle to Timothy as
giving clear criteria for judging inspired scripture:
"All
scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for
reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness." (2
Timothy 3:16, KJV)
There need not be any controversy about the idea expressed above: Whatever is
believed to have been revealed or inspired by God must serve one of the four
purposes: Either (1) it must teach us doctrine; or (2) it must reprove us for
our error; or (3) it offers us correction; or (4) it guides us into
righteousness.
On examination, we can find the Song of Solomon failing to pass any of the
above criteria. Because, from a religious point of view: (1) it does not teach
any doctrine; nor does it mention even God; (2) it does not reprove us for any
error on our part; (3) it does not offer us any sort of correction; and (4) it
does not guide us into righteousness; rather it gives sensuous descriptions of
physical intimacy in a frank language in a Book of God.
Indeed the difficulty of providing it a meaningful interpretation has caused
some Christian readers to doubt its status as a part of scripture.
The Song is apparently sung by Solomon in
admiration of one woman, and it depicts faithful love to that woman; but
Solomon had 700 wives and 300 concubines (1 Kings 11:3). This fact alone should
be enough to cast doubts on the claim that Solomon wrote the Song in admiration
of his sweetheart i.e. a single person glorifying fidelity and sincerity in
love.
The only
possible apology for the inclusion of the Song in the Bible can come from the
view that it is an allegory. A majority of interpreters favor this view.
To them, what
the writer said was only a symbolic husk for a deeper spiritual meaning that
the reader must discover. (Greg W. Parsons:
"Guidelines for Understanding and Utilizing the Song of
Songs," Bibliotheca Sacra 156:624 (October-December 1999):399-422;
quoted by Dr Thomas L. Constable in his Notes on Song of
Solomon)
Viewed from this angle, it would be wrong to take
the Song of Solomon literally. Chiefly, because a love story for the sake of a
love story does not have any place in scripture.
This means that the Christians have to take one of
the two reasonable positions: Either they should consider the Song of Songs as
non-canonical and reject it as possessing any scriptural value, or they should
be prepared to accept it as an allegory, where language is used symbolically.
And then the love story suddenly takes on new meanings which it did not possess
before.
And remember, a symbol is "something
used for or regarded as representing something else" (Dictionary.com).
Now, let us take a closer look at the verse quoted:
"His
mouth is most sweet: yea, he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved, and this
is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem." (Song of Solomon 5:16)
The original Hebrew Bible has
"Muhammadim" in the place of "altogether lovely", but the
translators rendered it "altogether lovely". It should have been
"the Praised One" that is the correct meaning of
"Muhammadim". At the same time, "Muhammadim" happens to
contain the name of the final prophet in Arabic too. This is what Muslims are
quick to point out.
They (with very few exceptions) do not study the
context of the expression as found in the present Bible. The Christian
contention is that the context does not warrant any one to claim that there is
a clear reference here to the final prophet.
Now, after considering the whole of the Song of
Solomon and the context of the verse, we can say that if we take the Song as an
allegory, and the epithet, "Muhammadim" as a description of "the
beloved", it is possible that the beloved is someone for whom a nation
or the world was waiting (for instance). And as has been argued above, there
is a strong case for that.
I want to underscore this point again. The
Christian claim about the Song of Solomon, that it just tells a good love story,
seems to contradict their defense of the Song as divinely inspired as the rest
of the Bible.
It follows logically that either the Song of Solomon is not divinely
inspired, or there is a possibility of "Muhammadim" being a reference
to the Last Prophet Muhammad.