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water only as a sign of purification of the heart by penance.
He promulgated that there was coming after him another
Prophet who would baptized them with the Holy Spirit
and fire; who would gather together his wheat into his
granaries and burn the chaff with an inextinguishable fire.
He further declared that he who was coming afterwards
was to such an extent superior to himself in power and
dignity that the Baptist confessed to be unfit or unworthy
to bow down to untie and loose the laces of his shoes.

It was on one of these great baptismal performances
of Hazrat Yahya (St. John the Baptist (pbuh) that Jesus (pbuh)
of Nazareth also entered into the water of the Jordan
and was baptized by the Prophet like everybody else.
Mark (i. 9) and Luke (iii. 21), who report this baptism of
Jesus (pbuh) by John , are unaware of the remarks of John
on this point as mentioned in Matthew (iii), where it is
stated that the Baptist said to Jesus (pbuh) : “I need to be
baptized by thee, and didst thou come to me?” To which
the latter is reported to have replied, “Let us fulfil the
righteousness”; and then he baptized him. The Synoptics
state that the spirit of prophecy came down to Jesus (pbuh)
in the shape of a dove as he went out from the water, and
a voice was heard saying: “This is my beloved son, in
whom I am well pleased.”

The Fourth Gospel knows nothing about Jesus (pbuh)
being baptized by John; but tells us that the Baptist,
when he saw Jesus (pbuh) exclaimed, “Behold the Lamb
of God,” etc. (John i). This Gospel pretends that Andrew
was a disciple of the Baptist, and having abandoned his
master brought his brother Simon to Jesus (pbuh) (John i) - a
story flagrantly contradicting the statements of the other
Evangelists (Matt. iv. 18-19, Mark i. 16-18). In St. Luke
the story is altogether different: here Jesus (pbuh) knows
Simon Peter before he is made a disciple (Luke iv. 38, 39);
and the circumstance which led the master to enlist the