Is Ezra the Son of God?
In Surah 9:29 of of the Qur'an, Muslims are instructed to do the following: "Fight those who do not believe in Allah or in the Last Day and who di not consider unlawful what Allah and his Messenger have made lawful and do not adopt the religion of truth from those who were given the scripture (Jews and Christians) until they pay Jizya willingly and are utterly subdued.
So why pray tell does the Qur'an command Muslims to fight the Jews and Christians? The answer is in the very next verse in Surah 9:30-"The Jew say, 'Ezra is the Son of Allah' and the Christians say 'The Messiah (Jesus) is the Son of Allah." That is the statement from their mouths; they imitate the saying of those who disbelieved. May Allah destroy them, how are they deluded?
This Qur'anic statement is reinforced by both Sahih Bukhari and Sahih Muslim, the two most trusted Hadith is Islam:
"Then the Jews will be called and it will be said to them, 'Who do you use to worship?' They will say 'We used to worship Ezra, the Son of Allah.' It will be said of them, 'You are liars, for Allah has never taken anyone as a wife or a son'..."
-Sahih Bukhari Volume 6, Book 60, Number 105
"Then the Jews will be called and it will be said to them, 'What did you worship?' They will say 'We worshipped Uzair (Ezra), the Son of Allah.' It will be said of them, 'You tell a lie, Allah never had a spouse or a son'..."
-Sahih Muslim Book 001, Number 0352
Now we have some problems here. Clearly this verse is commanding Muslims to fights Jews and Christians due to their religious beliefs. However, I have to ask a question; "Since when do the Jews apply divinity to Ezra?" Such a belief has never been a tenet of the Jewish faith. It cannot be found in the Jewish Scriptures nor in the commentaries like Talmud and Mishnah, nor have I every heard any Christian sect make this accusation against the Jewish people. According the the Bible, Ezra was a Jewish religious leader who returned to Jerusalem from the Babylonian Exile to reintroduce the Torah to the Jews of Jerusalem. However, nowhere in the Bible is it ever even remotely implied that Ezra was granted divinity by the Jewish people. So how does Islam try to explain this?
Well, Dr. Saifullah tries to explain that during the time of Muhammad there was a small Jewish community in Yemen that considered Ezra to be the Son of God. However, there are two problems with this statement. Firstly, Dr. Saifullah bases his assumption off the writings of the Qur'anic commentator Ibn Hazm who resided in Spain during the 9th-10th century, hundreds of years after Muhammad, so Ibn's claim is based on pure conjecture. I have personally spoken to Rabbis about this and they are unanimous in stating that there is no record of any Jewish sect that applied divinity to Ezra in the region of Yemen or anywhere else in the world and any point in time. Secondly, the Qur'an specifically says "The Jews," not "some Jews." One should bear in mind that in the time of Muhammad there were also many heretical Christian groups who did not accept the divinity of Jesus, and yet the Qur'an makes no distinction between these heretical Christians and those who accepted Jesus as being of divine nature.
Judaism is famous for its rich tradition. Everything in Judaism is based on tradition and every tradition is preserved in some way through history. With so much rabbinical commentary having been passed on and preserved over the generations, we do not find a stitch of evidence or reference to any tradition among Jewish people that Ezra was ever granted divinity. Thus, we must conclude that the Surah 9:30's accusation of the Jewish people applying the same divinity to Ezra that Christians apply to Jesus is simply false.
Sources
The Holy Bible
The Glorious Qur'an
The Hadith of Sahih Bukhari & Sahih Muslim
Katz, Jochen. "Was Uzayr (Ezra) called the Son of God?" Accessed May 15, 2018 from http://www.answering-islam.org/Responses/Saifullah/ezra.htm.
So why pray tell does the Qur'an command Muslims to fight the Jews and Christians? The answer is in the very next verse in Surah 9:30-"The Jew say, 'Ezra is the Son of Allah' and the Christians say 'The Messiah (Jesus) is the Son of Allah." That is the statement from their mouths; they imitate the saying of those who disbelieved. May Allah destroy them, how are they deluded?This Qur'anic statement is reinforced by both Sahih Bukhari and Sahih Muslim, the two most trusted Hadith is Islam:
"Then the Jews will be called and it will be said to them, 'Who do you use to worship?' They will say 'We used to worship Ezra, the Son of Allah.' It will be said of them, 'You are liars, for Allah has never taken anyone as a wife or a son'..."
-Sahih Bukhari Volume 6, Book 60, Number 105
"Then the Jews will be called and it will be said to them, 'What did you worship?' They will say 'We worshipped Uzair (Ezra), the Son of Allah.' It will be said of them, 'You tell a lie, Allah never had a spouse or a son'..."
-Sahih Muslim Book 001, Number 0352
Now we have some problems here. Clearly this verse is commanding Muslims to fights Jews and Christians due to their religious beliefs. However, I have to ask a question; "Since when do the Jews apply divinity to Ezra?" Such a belief has never been a tenet of the Jewish faith. It cannot be found in the Jewish Scriptures nor in the commentaries like Talmud and Mishnah, nor have I every heard any Christian sect make this accusation against the Jewish people. According the the Bible, Ezra was a Jewish religious leader who returned to Jerusalem from the Babylonian Exile to reintroduce the Torah to the Jews of Jerusalem. However, nowhere in the Bible is it ever even remotely implied that Ezra was granted divinity by the Jewish people. So how does Islam try to explain this?
Well, Dr. Saifullah tries to explain that during the time of Muhammad there was a small Jewish community in Yemen that considered Ezra to be the Son of God. However, there are two problems with this statement. Firstly, Dr. Saifullah bases his assumption off the writings of the Qur'anic commentator Ibn Hazm who resided in Spain during the 9th-10th century, hundreds of years after Muhammad, so Ibn's claim is based on pure conjecture. I have personally spoken to Rabbis about this and they are unanimous in stating that there is no record of any Jewish sect that applied divinity to Ezra in the region of Yemen or anywhere else in the world and any point in time. Secondly, the Qur'an specifically says "The Jews," not "some Jews." One should bear in mind that in the time of Muhammad there were also many heretical Christian groups who did not accept the divinity of Jesus, and yet the Qur'an makes no distinction between these heretical Christians and those who accepted Jesus as being of divine nature.
Judaism is famous for its rich tradition. Everything in Judaism is based on tradition and every tradition is preserved in some way through history. With so much rabbinical commentary having been passed on and preserved over the generations, we do not find a stitch of evidence or reference to any tradition among Jewish people that Ezra was ever granted divinity. Thus, we must conclude that the Surah 9:30's accusation of the Jewish people applying the same divinity to Ezra that Christians apply to Jesus is simply false.
Sources
The Holy Bible
The Glorious Qur'an
The Hadith of Sahih Bukhari & Sahih Muslim
Katz, Jochen. "Was Uzayr (Ezra) called the Son of God?" Accessed May 15, 2018 from http://www.answering-islam.org/Responses/Saifullah/ezra.htm.
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