And remember, Jesus, the son of Mary, said: "O Children of Israel! I am the messenger of Allah (sent) to you, confirming the Law (which came) before me, and giving Glad Tidings of a Messenger to come after me, whose name shall be Ahmad." But when he came to them with Clear Signs, they said, "this is evident sorcery!" S. 61:6 Yusuf Ali
The problem with the verse is that Jesus never made this prediction. Muhammad made it up. Maybe I can help other Muslim readers to see that there really is a problem by illustrating it with a simple fictitious scenario. Muhammad was not the last one to start a religion claiming that he was announced beforehand by earlier prophets. For example, this is the first paragraph of the Wikipedia entry on Bahá'u'lláh, founder of the Baha'i faith:
He claimed to fulfill the Bábà prophecy of "He whom God shall make manifest", but in a broader sense he also claimed to be the Messenger of God prophesied in all great religious traditions. He said that this day “is the king of days,� for which “the soul of every Prophet of God, of every Divine Messenger, hath thirsted,� and that “In this most mighty Revelation, all the Dispensations of the past have attained their highest, their final consummation.� (Source, accessed on 20 April 2006; bold emphasis mine)
Imagine that in one of Bahá'u'lláh's writings we were to find the statement:
And remember, Muhammad, the son of Amina, said: "O Arabs! I am the messenger of Allah (sent) to you, confirming the Revelations (which came) before me, and giving Glad Tidings of a Messenger to come after me, whose name shall be Bahá'u'lláh." But when he came to them with Clear Signs, they said, "this is evident sorcery!"
Would Muslims be impressed? Would they consider this to be evidence that Bahá'u'lláh is truly a messenger from God and thus convert and join the Baha'i faith? Hardly! Why not?
Given that such an alleged saying by Muhammad is recorded neither in the Qur'an nor in the sahih hadith, the authoritative sources of the religion of Islam, Muslims would conclude that Bahá'u'lláh invented this statement and put it into Muhammad's mouth in order to deceive and mislead people into believing that he is a messenger from God.
Instead of being a reason for believing in Bahá'u'lláh and his message, such a false claim would be a strong reason against believing him. It would not matter at all, if that statement were to be found in the authoritative religious sources of the Baha'is. The fact that it is not recorded in the Islamic sources would be sufficient reason for Muslims (and most other people), to reject such a claim as fabricated.
Baha'i apologists (defenders of the faith) could then counter this embarrassing problem by claiming that the Muslims have corrupted their scriptures by deliberately removing any reference to Bahá'u'lláh, ... but who would consider such a desperate response to be credible? Most everyone would immediately see that it was created merely for the purpose of defending a false claim by their religious founder.
Based on the authoritative Islamic sources, Muslims would easily be able to list half a dozen other reasons why this statement could not even be a lost but authentic statement of Muhammad. The fact that Muhammad explicitly taught to be the final prophet would only be one of them. There would be many others.
The problem of Surah 61:6 from a Christian viewpoint is the same as the one outlined above. There is no support for it in authentic Christian writings. Not only does Jesus not mention any "Ahmad", the Messiah (Jesus) is the center and climax of God's history of revelation and salvation. To postulate a later messenger to supersede Jesus stands in utter contradiction to the entire message of the Bible, Old and New Testaments. Looking at the historical evidence, Surah 61:6 is merely one of several alleged sayings of Jesus that the author of the Qur'an fabricated in order to give support to the claim that Muhammad is a messenger from God. No more and no less.
so Muhammad's credibility as a supposed messenger from God is heavily damaged by making the false claim about Jesus that is found in Surah 61:6.
It does not even matter much whether they made their wrong claims deliberately (i.e. knowing them to be wrong, but thinking they are nevertheless useful polemics), or ignorantly (i.e. thinking them to be correct, but being false in reality).
Muslims should be worried that the Qur'an contains this fabricated claim about an alleged statement of Jesus. To repeat, the Qur'an contains a false claim, a fake quotation, a forged prophecy. That damages the credibility of the Qur'an. That means that the Qur'an is not from God.
Let's look at the verse:
And remember, Jesus, the son of Mary, said: "O Children of Israel! I am the messenger of Allah (sent) to you, confirming the Law (which came) before me, and giving Glad Tidings of a Messenger to come after me, whose name shall be Ahmad." But when he came to them with Clear Signs, they said, "this is evident sorcery!" S. 61:6 Yusuf Ali
The problem with the verse is that Jesus never made this prediction. Muhammad made it up. Maybe I can help other Muslim readers to see that there really is a problem by illustrating it with a simple fictitious scenario. Muhammad was not the last one to start a religion claiming that he was announced beforehand by earlier prophets. For example, this is the first paragraph of the Wikipedia entry on Bahá'u'lláh, founder of the Baha'i faith:
He claimed to fulfill the Bábà prophecy of "He whom God shall make manifest", but in a broader sense he also claimed to be the Messenger of God prophesied in all great religious traditions. He said that this day “is the king of days,� for which “the soul of every Prophet of God, of every Divine Messenger, hath thirsted,� and that “In this most mighty Revelation, all the Dispensations of the past have attained their highest, their final consummation.� (Source, accessed on 20 April 2006; bold emphasis mine)
Imagine that in one of Bahá'u'lláh's writings we were to find the statement:
And remember, Muhammad, the son of Amina, said: "O Arabs! I am the messenger of Allah (sent) to you, confirming the Revelations (which came) before me, and giving Glad Tidings of a Messenger to come after me, whose name shall be Bahá'u'lláh." But when he came to them with Clear Signs, they said, "this is evident sorcery!"
Would Muslims be impressed? Would they consider this to be evidence that Bahá'u'lláh is truly a messenger from God and thus convert and join the Baha'i faith? Hardly! Why not?
Given that such an alleged saying by Muhammad is recorded neither in the Qur'an nor in the sahih hadith, the authoritative sources of the religion of Islam, Muslims would conclude that Bahá'u'lláh invented this statement and put it into Muhammad's mouth in order to deceive and mislead people into believing that he is a messenger from God.
Instead of being a reason for believing in Bahá'u'lláh and his message, such a false claim would be a strong reason against believing him. It would not matter at all, if that statement were to be found in the authoritative religious sources of the Baha'is. The fact that it is not recorded in the Islamic sources would be sufficient reason for Muslims (and most other people), to reject such a claim as fabricated.
Baha'i apologists (defenders of the faith) could then counter this embarrassing problem by claiming that the Muslims have corrupted their scriptures by deliberately removing any reference to Bahá'u'lláh, ... but who would consider such a desperate response to be credible? Most everyone would immediately see that it was created merely for the purpose of defending a false claim by their religious founder.
Based on the authoritative Islamic sources, Muslims would easily be able to list half a dozen other reasons why this statement could not even be a lost but authentic statement of Muhammad. The fact that Muhammad explicitly taught to be the final prophet would only be one of them. There would be many others.
The problem of Surah 61:6 from a Christian viewpoint is the same as the one outlined above. There is no support for it in authentic Christian writings. Not only does Jesus not mention any "Ahmad", the Messiah (Jesus) is the center and climax of God's history of revelation and salvation. To postulate a later messenger to supersede Jesus stands in utter contradiction to the entire message of the Bible, Old and New Testaments. Looking at the historical evidence, Surah 61:6 is merely one of several alleged sayings of Jesus that the author of the Qur'an fabricated in order to give support to the claim that Muhammad is a messenger from God. No more and no less.
so Muhammad's credibility as a supposed messenger from God is heavily damaged by making the false claim about Jesus that is found in Surah 61:6.
It does not even matter much whether they made their wrong claims deliberately (i.e. knowing them to be wrong, but thinking they are nevertheless useful polemics), or ignorantly (i.e. thinking them to be correct, but being false in reality).
Muslims should be worried that the Qur'an contains this fabricated claim about an alleged statement of Jesus. To repeat, the Qur'an contains a false claim, a fake quotation, a forged prophecy. That damages the credibility of the Qur'an. That means that the Qur'an is not from God.