Nature of Prophecies
The truth is that so far as prophecies are concerned it has always been
the practice of God that He keeps a sort of secrecy and an aspect of trials
in them. Had that not been the case, there would have never arisen any differences
and all the people would have belonged to one and the same religion. In
order to create some distinction, God has willed there to be some sort of
hidden aspect in the prophecies, and a trial. Those who can look at the
things only superficially stick to the words and are led far away from the
reality. That was the difficulty that the Jews were confronted with; they
started doubting the position of the Holy Prophet
(sallallaho alaihi
wa sallam). If the Biblical prophecy had been clearly indicative of
the fact that this prophet would be descendant of Hazrat Ishmael and his
name would be Muhammad
(sallallaho alaihi wa sallam), his father's
name would be Abdullah son of Abdul Muttalib and his mother would be Aamina,
the Jews would have never rejected him. But unfortunately for them, this
detail was not mentioned in the prophecy; the prophecy mentioned his as
being from among 'your brethren'; they took it to mean that he would be
from among the children of Israel.
(Malfoozat vol. 7, pg. 200)