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John 14:16 says:

And I will pray to God that he will send to you another comforter, who will abide with you for ever!

Muslims claim that "another comforter" means Ahmad in Arabic, which means "Praised One"; and Muhammad also means "Praise One" hence, Ahmad and Muhammad are synonyms (same meaning).
Hence John 14:16 talks about prophet Muhammad of Islam!

As per me, names given to humans by their elders don't necessary reflect the attributes of that particular human. For example, Shah-Rukh Khan, the superstar of Indian films was named Shah-Rukh by his elders (parents). Shah means king, Rukh means face. Hence, Shah-Rukh means face of the king! But, it doesn't mean that actor Shah-Rukh Khan is the King of some country.

Similarly, Muhammad was so named by his grandfather Abdul-Muttalib. It is his original name. But Ahmad is not the original name of prophet Muhammad. Ahmad is an attribute of prophet Muhammad.

Just like Rashid (guided one), Bashir (bringer of good tidings), Rasul (messenger), Nabi (prophet), Mustafa (chosen one) are attributes of the prophet Muhammad, not original-names. The original name of the prophet Muhammad is Muhammad only, name given by his grandfather.

This is the difference between Muhammad and Ahmad.

But sura 61 verse 6 in the Quran, in a nutshell, says:

Jesus told the children of Israel that, after him, a messenger will come whose name will be Ahmad.

Name in Arabic means "bisma, us muha, I-sma".

Sura 61, verse 6 should have said "a messenger will come after me who will be Ahmad" instead of "whose name will be Ahmad".

in sura 61 verse 6 , "AHMAD" is NOUN (name of a person ) instead of ADJECTIVE ( attribute of the person ) which is exactly opposite to John 14:16 in which PARCLETE -COMFORTER-PRAISED-ONE or AHMAD is ADJECTIVE instead of NOUN

As I explained before, there is a vast difference between formal, official names and attributes, which are taken as names of the concerned human. Muhammad is the former (official name) of the prophet, and Ahmad is the attribute of the prophet, assumed as a name of the prophet.

Or John 14:16 should have said: "and I will pray to God that he will send another comforter whose name will be Praised One or Comforter or Counselor" (Ahmad in Arabic) instead of "and I will pray to God that he will send another comforter".

I would like to understand if John 14:16 really talks about prophet Muhammad.

mohit vats
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    This seems to be more of question on Islam. From a Christian perspective, the answer is "no". If we thought it did, we'd be Muslim, not Christian. – David Stratton Sep 07 '13 at 04:23
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    This is not the site to debunk Islam. Questions about Islam are by and large off topic here. Please don't ask another one. If you'd like to learn about Christian doctrine as it relates to Christianity this is the site for that. – wax eagle Sep 07 '13 at 13:11
  • The recent edit did not change the question at all. I am not going to vote to reopen. –  Sep 08 '13 at 04:02
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    While not the main focus, I touch on this reference in passing while dealing with similar ones here: Is the name of Prophet Muhammad mentioned in the Bible? – Caleb Sep 08 '13 at 05:23
  • I have not finished reading the Bible, so I may be wrong, so I apologise if I am. But, I have read that Muslims believe the Jesus was only a Prophet, and according to the Bible, Jesus was God/God's Son. In this question, Jesus says there will be another Prophet (messenger - assumption was mine). I also read somewhere a while back, that the Bible will be the final word of God. But I've also read that the Quran came after the Bible. Correct me if I'm wrong, but did I just count about 4 or 5 contradictions? – uSeRnAmEhAhAhAhAhA Mar 14 '14 at 05:32

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Here is the text in context. John 14:15-21 (New International Version)

“If you love me, keep my commands. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.”

Apparently, Jesus is referring to the Spirit of Truth, aka Holy Spirit, as annotated by the NIV. Muhammad is a human being who is a prophet in Islam. I do not see the connection, unless somehow you take a human being as a "spirit". However, I am afraid that takes things out of context, because Muhammad existed after Jesus, so Jesus would not have known Muhammad intimately.

Double U
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    @ Anonymous: world had seen muhaammad woth their eyes becuse he was blood and flesh human but john14; 15-21 says that : world will not see HIM – mohit vats Sep 07 '13 at 09:45
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This claim has two parts: 1) that the word is the same as Mohammed's name, and 2) that the word (I think in Aramaic if I remember correctly) sounds like Mohammed's name (mehmet).

On the first point, I think it's the same as someone today named Joshua claiming to be Jesus. The name Jesus in it's original form is Yeshua which was an alternative spelling of Yehoshua, which is today's Joshua.

The second point is transliteration. The word that was used sounded like Muhammed (mehmet), but it was a different word. It's transliteration because it's across different languages.

However, even within the same language you have the same type of thing happening. They're called homonyms/homophones. For example, the words "see" and "sea" sound like the same word but in fact they have different meanings.

Words in aramaic or hebrew cannot be "spelled" the same way as in arabic, so you must concede a difference in spellings. However we even have examples of words that are spelled the same but have different meanings. Bow means:

  1. the front of a boat
  2. to bend at the waist
  3. to tie with a ribbon
  4. a device for shooting arrows

So no, in my judgement the scriptures could not have possibly been even alluding to Mohammed. I can understand why muslims may find this coincidence of a word sounding like Mohammed to be interesting since it lines up with their world view. If I were muslim I'd probably feel there was something to it.

Also please note the comforter is to abide with us forever, and help us forever. Muhammed died.

Angelo
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    I think you're exactly correct in identifying the illogical linguistic acrobatics being used here. I dealt with this in a bit more detail on a similar question on [skeptics.se] here: Is the name of Prophet Muhammad mentioned in the Bible? – Caleb Sep 08 '13 at 05:28
  • @caleb: good points raised by you ! moreover , song-of-soloman says : He is " altogather lovely" ! "altogather lovely" is the attribute of "HE" , not name of "HE" !name of "HE" is "muhmmmad" ! mother-teresa was also "alogather lovely" – mohit vats Sep 08 '13 at 18:12