This statement was made by a prominent protagonist for Islam. Our replies are given as Editor’s Notes in brackets. His argument went as follows:

: Islam emphatically denies this doctrine (of the Triunity of God). The Holy Qur'an declares:

112.1-4 "Say: God is One on Whom all depend. He did not beget, nor was He begotten, and none is equal to Him."

(Editor’s Note. This is perfectly true for both Muslim and Christian views in the terms in which it is meant. The idea here is of a begetting in time. But, apart from His human nature, the LORD Jesus Christ was not begotten in time, and His begetting in time was not 'of the Father', it was by the Holy Spirit acting on Mary so as to produce His humanity. Indeed He was not begotten at all in the natural sense of the word. When theologians speak of an ‘eternal begetting’ all they are really saying is that the LORD Jesus Christ is of the same nature as the Father, and has been so from all eternity. It is all a matter of definition).

19.88-92 "And they say the Beneficent has taken to Himself a son. Certainly you make an abominable assertion. The heavens may almost burst, and the Earth cleave asunder, and the mountains fall down in pieces, that they ascribe a son to the Beneficent. And it is not worthy of the Beneficent that He should take to Himself a son."

(Editor’s Note: When Muhammad said this he had in mind the false doctrine of the Trinity which he had been told by heretics representing it as God, Mariam and Isa, and the false idea that Isa became God at the stage that He was conceived by Mariam. But all that that indicates is that Muhammad (and seemingly Allah) was unaware of what the true doctrine of the Triune God was. Certainly God ‘did not take to Himself (beget) a son’ at some point in time. That would truly have been to demean God. But that does not deny the fact that from all eternity God was in threeness, and in the end manifested Himself in threeness, the Father, the LORD (Jesus Christ) and the Holy Spirit. God did NOT ‘take to Himself’ a son. The Lord (Jesus Christ) was eternally a part of the Godhead. This was spoken of in human languages as sonship in order to stress that they were of the same nature, not in order to say that one was born and the other was not.)

Why does Islam deny so emphatically the doctrine of the Trinity?

Islam denies Trinity because parenthood of God to any living or non-living being is inconceivable in bodily terms and degrading to the concept of God. He is neither limited nor a body, and He encompasses the whole universe. He does not have a mate in order to have a child as any other living being does.

(Editor’s Note. Once again we see that Muslims do not understand what the Christian doctrine is. Certainly God does not have a ‘mate’ through whom He begets offspring. That would be absurd.. Nor is God literally ‘the parent’ of any living thing except metaphorically as their Creator. But that does not deny the fact that within God is a threeness which can metaphoricall be set forth as ‘Father, Son and Holy Spirit’, using human terms for the relationships in order express their oneness of nature. Indeed the fact that God is love demands a plurality because for there to be eternal love there had eternally to be One Who was loved. Thus the nature of God (Allah) demands a plurality in unity. Had this not been so God (Allah) would have eternally been starkly alone without relationship until He created.).

His spiritual parenthood to any soul or spirit is also inconceivable if it means other than being the Creator of that soul or spirit. There is no conceivable relation between God and any other being other than the relation between the Creator and His creature. Otherwise, the other being will be independent from God, and he will be His partner.

(Editor’s Note: But how can God be independent from Himself. The doctrine is not that we have God and some others, the doctrine is that God Himself is a threeness. Who can say what God can and cannot be? Who can possibly know the nature of God apart from His revelation of Himself through the LORD Jesus Christ?)

Now, if the ascribed son is united with God, the case will be as if I state that my son and I are one. If such a statement were true, I would be the father of myself, because I am my own son. And my son would be the son of himself, because he is I. Thus, God would be the father of Himself, and His son would be the son of himself.

(Editor’s note: The Muslims cannot get away from the idea that speaking of the Triune God is speaking of something which happened within a time frame. But the Triunity of God was true outside of time (putting it crudely ‘before time began’). Jesus was not the Son in the sense spoken of by the writer. He was of the same nature as the Father and metaphorically the Son. We cannot compare the human relationship of father and son (where one is born after the other) with the Divine relationship that has always existed and is simply illustrated by using human terms which are not fully satisfactory.).

God is not, and cannot be, the father of any living or non-living being if fatherhood is used for its true meaning.

(Editor’s Note: That depends on what you mean by ‘true meaning’. If you mean by that the earthly relationship of father and son then of course it cannot be true of God. But no well taught Christian ever suggested that it was. God ‘the Father' did not ever precede God ‘the Son’. The words are simply being used in order to indicate oneness of nature, and that the One sent the other to be the Saviour of the world. It is not in order to suggest anything else.)

If the word is used in its figurative sense, to mean that God is as compassionate to His living creature as a father, then He will not only be the father of one person but the father of all mankind. And this is what can be understood from the Christian prayer, "Our father, Thou art in Heaven. "

(Editor’s Note. But that is also not the sense in which Christians speak of the ‘Sonship’ of Jesus Christ the LORD. His unique relationship to the Father is real not figurative. The problem is that we have difficulty in finding words in which to describe it because it is a relationship outside our understanding and we have to do our best by using unsatisfactory human terms, and then qualifying them in order to prevent the precise misunderstanding under which the writer is suffering. ).

But even this figurative usage of the word is repugnant to Islam because it is misleading and confusing to the people. Muslims, therefore, do not use it.

(Editor;s Note. We can understand this because the Muslim idea of God is one of remoteness. But as Christians we know that we can enter into a personal relationship with God, and that is why figuratively we call Him Father, as the LORD Jesus Christ taught us to do. But the LORD Jesus Christ never spoke to God as 'father' in that figurative way. He always distinguished His own relationship with the Father from that of all others. ).

Is there then any disproof of the divinity of Christ?

It is not necessary to disprove the divinity of Jesus or Mohammad or any other human being. But if you claim the divinity of anyone besides God, you need to prove your claim. If someone claims that you are an angel, he has to prove it. I do not need to prove that you are a man because you appear as a man and have all the attributes of a man. The one who claims that you are an angel is supposed to prove what he claims, because his claim is contrary to the common sense and to what appears as the actual fact.

(Editor’s Note. Well that is a non sequitur. The point is that if Someone has revealed Himself as God and demonstrated it by His life then it is necessary to disprove it if we are to deny it. And Jesus did reveal in His life, actions and teaching that He was truly God a well as man. That can, however, only be discovered by reading the record for yourself. Read first John’s Gospel. Then read the other Gospels, asking yourself step by step ‘what does this demonstrate about Jesus Christ? See especially John chapters 5.17 onwards and chapter 14. But it is a question that needs more than a few lines to deal with. See our article on the triunity of God.)

When a person says that Jesus or Mohammad is a man, and not a God, he agrees with the accepted definition. Jesus lived like a man, looked like a man, slept as a man, ate as a man, and was persecuted like one. None of these facts need proof. This is not the case with the one who claims his divinity. His claim is opposed to the common knowledge. Therefore, he, and no one else, has to provide the evidence for his claim.

(Editors’ Note; Jesus Christ was BOTH man and God. So yes He lived as a man, But He also lived as God. Produce the evidence? He did in His life and teaching, by His amazing ability to answer questions to which others had no answer, and by His wondrous works in the light of them. But that will require another article).

Although the Muslims are not supposed to provide any evidence for the denial of the divinity of Jesus, they can present more than one evidence:

1. Jesus was a worshipper. Of course, he worshipped God, not himself. This proves that he was not a god but a very humble servant of God.

(Editor’s Note. No it only proves that He was also true man, and as true man worshipped the Father. To worship is to own the worth of. But to do that does not prove that He was not also God.).

2. According to three of the gospels, the last words Jesus uttered were: "My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?" A person who has a God is not a God.

(Editor’s Note. Actually they were not His last words. But they are of course a citation of Psalm 22.1. He was simply, in the agony of His human suffering, strengthening Himself with a Psalm.).

3. God is Ever-Living, but Jesus is mortal; God is the Almighty, but Jesus was persecuted.

(Editor’s Note: Yes the manhood of Jesus Christ was mortal, but not His Godhood. His manhood died but not His Godhood. Just as when a man’s body dies his soul lives on, so when Jesus died His Godhood lived on.) By becoming man God opened Himself to persecution, but only of His manhood.

Why cannot we view Jesus as a god from his spiritual side and a mortal human from his bodily side?

Having two sides, spirit and body, is not the exclusive property of Jesus, because every human being has these two sides. You have both spirit and body, and so do I. And neither of our spirits is mortal, since our spirits will continue to live after our death. But this does not make either of us a god, and so is the case with Jesus.

(Editor’s Note: But it need not be the case with Jesus. That is simply a dogmatic assumption. Jesus did not just have ‘a spirit’, He had divine Spirit. That is the difference)

But Jesus is not like us. He, according to the Qur'an and the Bible, was born from a virgin mother without a father. Does not this mean that he is more than a human being?

Being born from a mother without a father does not make Jesus more than a human being. Adam was created without father and mother, and that did not make him more than a human. From the Holy Qur'an:

3.59 "Certainly the status of Jesus in the eyes of God is like the status of Adam. He created him from dust. He said to him: 'Be,' and so he was."

Neither Jesus nor Adam is a god because neither of them is the Creator of the universe.

(Editor’s Note: But there is a great distinction. Adam was made of the dust of the ground and God breathed life into Him. It was very different with Jesus. He was NOT made from the dust of the ground but was born of Mary, through the activity of the Holy Spirit. The great difference was that it was through the divine ativity of the Holy Spirit, the divine Spirit. It was through His activity that He Who was God was also born as man. Furthermore He WAS the Creator of the Universe. By Him all things were made - John 1.3). And He sustains all things by His powerful word (Hebrews 1.3)

How do we know that he was not the Creator of the universe?

The scientists say that the stars are more than four billion years old, and Jesus was born less than two thousand years ago. How can such an old universe be created by such a young creator?

(Editor’s Note. But God in His ‘sonship’ is more than billions of years old. He is eternal. Therefore the problem disappears. It was not the man Jesus Who created the world. It was the the part of the Godhood Who later became the God-man Jesus.).