Reuben, Yes, it was the same with Muhammad. He had many disciples and followers, in fact 124,000 before he died. They all knew him and worked with him and listened to him and obeyed him. They all learned from Muhammad.
We have to think about practicalities too. It is impossible for 124,000 people to really have an in-depth and personalized experience of one man. Even a class of 50 students cannot have that of a teacher; what more to say 124,000 people. You have to imagine the practicalities with these things.
There may be 124,000 followers of the Pope, but a few only who can be his confidantes, working with him in his personal capacity in the Vatican. People who would really know his thoughts and personal habit. So your figure of 124,000, though may be true can hardly applies as the same as the apostles and friends of Jesus who were only a handful. Not even the seventy two were that close to him compared to the twelve and perhaps the few women who were supporting him.
If you think that Quran is a by-product of Muhammad then you may be right. But it is not so. Quran is a revealed book. What disciples of jesus wrote (just four of them) can be more accurate than what came out of Muhammad if it came out of Muhammad’s head. But it did not. It all came from God Almighty.
If we cannot prove that techings / words of Muhammad were from God or not then we also cannot say that Jesus was God just because some one said so. So the matter rests on the beliefs. You easily believe what you like and I will believe what I will like. That is no standard toknow the truth.
I concede your point as far as the Quran is a revealed book, since this is the belief of Islam.
You miss my point. We cannot prove that Jesus is God as this involves to some extent, belief. But I was not talking about this subject. I was talking about a book written by people who truly knew Jesus.
You have major problem here. You discount the book written by people who knew Jesus personally but take as authentic a book as a result from Mohammad’s mind.
Now as far as belief is concerned, by all means. Then you should also similarly believe in Paul when Jesus appeared to him. This is belief too. Too often Muslims do not take this into account when assessing Paul.
There is no need for Allah to appear face to face with any one. If any one thinks that Allah spoke face to face then first I would like to know it from bible OT and NT. I feel that there is a clear verse in the bible that nobody hs seen god face to face, not even Moses a.s.
While Jesus was walking about amongst people, could any one say or see that he was god? I hope not.
Reuben, you are not understanding revelation. Revelation comes from above, not from inside of a person. Revelation is done care of an angel. It takes hold of all senses of a person as if he had no control over himself. Then the message is conveyed to the person. The revelation is the highest form of knowledge, well above us eof senses and intuition, inspiration and intellect.
I was talking about discernment. It is a fact that not all revelations were spoken to him by the angel Gabriel. Some were simply his inspirations, thoughts that came to his mind. In many cases, yes, these may be from Allah, but yet Mohammad still had to decide whether they were really from Allah or not. That was my point.
I think I understand revelations per se and they sure come from above. But then again they must be put to the tests to see whether they really are from above.