Islam and the Holy Trinity Part 2 of 2: Examining the Islamic Objections
Now let us look at Muhammad’s objections to the Trinity. As we both know, Muhammad came from a heavily polytheist region, but he later became an ardent monotheist, following what we would today call “Unitarian monotheism.” Therefore, it is only natural that Muhammad would object to the Trinity. Although Muhammad objects to the Trinity, it seems that he is not correctly describing it.
Surah 4:166-172, the Qur’an states: “People of the Book, do not transgress the bounds of your religion. Speak nothing but the truth about God. The Messiah, Jesus, Son of Mary, was nor more than God’s Apostle and His Word which He cast to Mary: A spirit from him (interesting that the Spirit of God sent his Word to Mary). So believe in God and his Apostles and do not say Three: desist, and it shall be better for you.”
Surah 5:73 states: “Unbelievers are those that say God is one of three, there is but one God.” Surah 6:101, the Qur’an states: “Creator of the Heavens and the Earth. How should He have a Son when He had no consort? He created all things, and He has knowledge of all things.”
Surah 5:116, the Qur’an states: “And when Allah will say, "O Jesus, Son of Mary, did you say to the people, 'Take me and my mother as deities besides Allah?'"
Muslim Scholar Ibn Kathir (1301-1373) writes “How can He have
a child when there is for him no consort, when He created all things and is
aware of all things?” He further elaborates on this when he wrote
“Allah has no equal or rival sharing His grace and greatness, so how can he
have a son when He has no Wife?” This is a long-standing view among
Muslim scholars throughout Islamic history.
Even early Muslim scholars made the same assertion that Ibn Kathir made. Ibn Ishaq, who wrote the first known biography of Muhammad wrote the following:
“They argue that he is the son of God in that they say he
had no known father, and he spoke from the cradle and this is something that no
child of Adam has ever done. They argue that he is the third of three in
that God says: ‘We have done, We have commanded, We have created, and We have
decreed, and they say, If He were one he would have said I have done, I have
created, and so on, but He is He and Jesus and Mary. Concerning all these assertions the
Qur’an has come down.”
-Ibn Ishaq: Sirat Rasul Allah, 271-272
On one
final point, renowned 12th century commentator Abu
al-Qasim Mahmud ibn Umarnaz-Zamakh-shari took it upon himself to
examine Christian worship and admitted that the Qur’an objection to Christian
dogma differed significantly from what he observed:
“The
(word) three is the predicate to an understood subject. If one accepts
the Christian view that God exists in one Nature with three divine Persons
(Father, Son, and Holy Spirt), and if one accepts the opinion of the Father
represents God’s being, the person of the Son represents his knowledge, and the
person of the Holy Spirit represents his life, then one must supply the subject
as follows: God is threefold. According to the Qur’an, the Christians
maintain that God, Christ, and Mary are three Gods and that Christ is the child
of God by Mary as God says in the Qur’an in Surah 5:116. Moreover, it is
well known that the Christians maintain that in Jesus are combined a divine
nature from the Father and a human nature from his mother. At the same
time, as in the words of Surah 4:171 exclude (the Christian view) that Jesus
had with God the unusual relationship between sons and (their fathers)…”
-Helmut,
Gatje. The Qur’an and it’s Exegesis, 126-127.
So, as
you see, Abu al-Qasim Mahmud ibn Umarnaz-Zamakh-shari acknowledges
that his personal study of Christian worship showed that their dogma is
different from what the Qur’an is describing, but as a faithful Muslim, he
could not object to the Qur’an’s findings, so he had to go by them, even though
it contradicted and redefined Christian beliefs.
When you
hear the term “Father and Son” it is natural to assume that there is a
mother. Coming from a heavily polytheist background, it’s understandable
to believe that when Muhammad learned that Jesus was ascribed divinity by the
early Christians, that he would assume that there were three Gods worship by
Christians. The Father, the Mother (Mary), and the Son (Jesus).
However, this is not the Trinity, and what the Qur’an describes is actually
considered hearsay in Christianity. Christians never believed that God
took on a wife, nor that Mary was a God, and yet this is what Muhammad
continually implies. This raises the issue that I’ve wrestled with:
Muhammad continually objects to the Trinity, yet he does not correctly define
it. So how can he object to something he doesn’t understand? On
another point, how can his claim to prophet-hood stand if he cannot
understand Christian dogma? Surely neither God nor a prophet of God would
make a mistake like this.
The
Qur'an's flawed analysis of the Trinity puts Islam in an impossible
dilemma. Either Allah did not give Muhammad the correct revelations about
the Trinity (which means that Allah cannot be God), or Muhammad did not
understand the Trinity (which means Muhammad is not a prophet because no
prophet would deliver an incorrect revelation like this). Thus if the
only two options is that Allah is not God or that Muhammad is not a
prophet. Either way, the entire core of the Islamic faith crumbles.
Dr. James White. The Forgotten Trinity: Recovering the Heart of Christian Belief. Minneapolis: Bethany House Publishers, 1998.
Dr. James White. What Every Christian Needs to Know about the Qur'an. Minneapolis: Bethany House Publishers, 2013.
Josh McDowell & Jim Walker. Understanding Christianity & Islam: Beliefs That Separate Us & How to Talk About Them. Eugene, OR: Harvest House Publishers, 2013.
Nabeel Qureshi. No God but One: Allah or Jesus? A Former Muslim Investigates the Evidence for Islam and Christianity. Grand Rapids. MI: Zondervan, 2016.
The Holy Bible
The Glorious Qur'an
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