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2. John the Baptist recognizes Muhammad as being
superior to and more powerful than he is. That significant
expression made to the Jewish multitudes, “He that cometh
after me” reminded their Scribes, Pharisees, and lawyers of
the ancient prophecy of their great ancestor Jacob, in which
that patriarch uses the unique title of “Shilokhah” for the
“Rasul Allah,” the epithet frequently used by Jesus (pbuh) for
Muhammad (pbuh) as preserved in the Gospel of Barnabas. At
the time of writing my article on the

“Shiloh” [1] I said that the word might be a corruption
of “shiloukh” or “Shilokhah,” [2] which means the Apostle
of Allah, but I did not then recollect that St. Jerome, as
well, had understood the Hebrew from in that sense, for
he has translated it as “qui mittendis est.”

We have only an epitome of John’s sermon in a few
lines, written not by himself but by an unknown hand -at
least not in his own original tongue- and much tampered
with by transcribers and redactors who had already made
his disciple Jesus (pbuh) an idol or a god. However, when we
come to compare this sermon preached in the wilderness of
Judea and on the shores of the Jordan with the marvellous
grace, elegance, eloquence, and power so manifest in
every verse and page of the Holy Quran, we understand
the sense of the words, “He is more powerful than I!”

When I picture to myself the ascetic Baptist preaching
aloud in the wilderness, or on the banks of the Jordan,
to the masses of the Jewish believers, with a theocratic
history of some four thousand years old behind them,
and then make a brief review of the quiet, orderly, and
dignified manner in which Muhammad (pbuh) proclaimed
his celestial verse of the Quran to the unbelieving Arab

[1] Cf. Islamic Review for September, 1928, p. 313 et seq.

[2] The Oriental Hebrews and Assyrians pronounce the word “Shilokah” or
“Shiloakh.” It is very difficult to write or transliterate the Semitic languages in the
Latin characters. (the author).