there comes to you a messenger confirming what you already have, you must believe in him and support him.’ He said, ‘Do you affirm this and accept My covenant on that condition?’ They said, ‘We affirm it.’ He said, ‘Then bear witness, and I too am among the witnesses.’ (3:81)

Ibn ʿAbbās said: Allah never sent a prophet without first taking from him the covenant that if Muhammad were raised up while that prophet were still alive, he would most certainly believe in him and aid him. He also commanded each prophet to take the same covenant from his nation: that if Muhammad were raised up during their lifetime, they would assuredly believe in him and follow him. (1)

Section

All of the foregoing arguments were framed on the assumption that his description, qualities, and the reports concerning him are unknown in the earlier scriptures. We shall now cite some of the glad tidings those books contain regarding him, along with his traits and the traits of his nation; this becomes clear from several angles:

(The first angle): The Exalted said in the Torah: “I will raise up for the Children of Israel a prophet from among their brothers, like you. I will place My words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them whatever I command him. Whoever does not heed the words that that prophet speaks in My name, I Myself will exact vengeance on him and on his clan.” (2)

This passage is one that none of them can deny or repudiate; yet the People of the Book deal with it in four ways:

The first: They apply it to the Messiah, and this is the position of the Christians.

As for the Jews, they have three approaches: (3)