Muhammad is the First Among 10,000….or 150?

Buraq – The Flying Donkey of the Night Journey

I don’t think I’ll ever tire of shredding the supposed prophecy of Muhammad in Song of Solomon 5:16.  I’ve already shown that the spelling isn’t correct, the beloved drinks wine in verse 1, and that Muhammad never met the daughters of Jerusalem.  This is all before even getting into the context of the book.

The one verse that they appear to have going for them I’ve never tackled.  That is Song of Solomon 5:10.  Here are a couple of translations:

My beloved is radiant and ruddy, outstanding among ten thousand.

– NIV

“My beloved is dazzling and ruddy, Outstanding among ten thousand.

– NASB

My beloved is white and ruddy, Pre-eminent above ten thousand.

– JPS Tanakh 1917

Now, Muhammad is outstanding among 10,000.  That’s the exact same amount of soldiers he had when he conquered Mecca in 630 AD.  A connection perhaps?  Perhaps this is a prophecy of Muhammad?  For seasons listed above and others, it isn’t and I will explain why.

Muslims have never told us who is talking about Muhammad in Song of Solomon 5:16.  It says:

His mouth is sweetness itself; he is altogether lovely.  This is my beloved, this is my friend, daughters of Jerusalem.

After describing the beloved, the one narrating introduces the beloved to the daughters of Jerusalem.  Muhammad had many wives so which one was this?  There is a hint in the text.  There was only one time in his life when Muhammad was in the vicinity of the daughters of Jerusalem.  That was on the night journey in 621 AD, where he flew on a flying donkey from Mecca to Jerusalem in the middle of the night.

Who was his wife at the time?  Khadija was dead.  He was married to Sawda and possibly Aisha.  We can rule out Aisha since she would have only been 7 at the time of the night journey so she wouldn’t have been able to talk poetically like in the Song of Solomon.  Sawda is the best candidate for who is introducing Muhammad to the daughters of Jerusalem.

Now, on the night journey, I don’t recall Sawda accompanying Muhammad to Jerusalem.  But let’s give Muslims the benefit of the doubt and say that as a wife Sawda was supportive of him and accompanied him and the later chroniclers chose to omit this for one reason or another.  Maybe they were sexist, who knows?

Now as we know in Jerusalem, Muhammad supposedly ascends to the heavens and talks with the prophets.  What would Sawda be doing at this time?  I suppose if Song of Solomon is correct then she’d have gone into the city and found some women(daughters of Jerusalem) and told them about Muhammad.  What’s interesting was that Jerusalem would have been under Jewish backed Persian occupation at this time so in addition to the Greeks, there were Jews and Persians who could hear about Muhammad.  Now, this was in the middle of the night.  Don’t the daughters of Jerusalem sleep at night?  Maybe they couldn’t sleep so they were going for a walk to clear their minds.  Maybe they ran into Sawda and she told them about Muhammad.

Now, as I mentioned earlier, there is no record of Sawda going to Jerusalem with Muhammad, let alone going into the city and talking with women who can’t fall asleep.  There’s also something that should be mentioned.  This is during the Meccan period.  Muhammad doesn’t get followers on the scales of thousands until he gets to Medina.  In Mecca he had between 100 and 200 followers when he fled to Medina, which happened shortly after the night journey.

What does this mean?  It means that at the only time this episode could have been was when Muhammad was in Mecca with few followers.  In 630 AD it could be said that Muhammad is the first among 10,000 but in Mecca that wasn’t the case.  He was the first among 150 or some other small number.

There is of course another crazy explanation for all of this.  Muhammad isn’t the Muhammadim in Song of Solomon.  I think Muslims need to give this argument a retirement party; or maybe an honorable burial.