Surah 2:62 vs. Surah 3:85

The Next Quran translation I’ll be reading

In the Bible we have multiple authors.  For example, we have a different author for each Gospel narrative.  We have different authors for the historical and prophetic books of the Old Testament as well.  Sometimes when something seems to be contradictory, usually the author is just trying to emphasize something where another author is not.  The problem is solved for us.

Is there a more important topic than salvation?  Absolutely not.  That’s why Muslims and Christians follow their respective religions.  The Quran has some interesting things to say about salvation.  I’m reading the Quran again so naturally I’ll start with Surah 1, 2, then 3.

Surah 2 and 3 give us contradictory views on salvation for non-Muslims.  Let’s see what they say:

Those who believe, and those who are Jewish, and the Christians, and the Sabeans—any who believe in God and the Last Day, and act righteously—will have their reward with their Lord; they have nothing to fear, nor will they grieve.

– Surah 2:62

Whoever seeks other than Islam as a religion, it will not be accepted from him, and in the Hereafter he will be among the losers.

– Surah 3:85

Surah 2 tells us that Jews, Christians and this mysterious group called the Sabeans can be saved.  This is the author of the Quran extending the ecumenical olive branch to the sister religions.  Surah 3 takes the more firm approach which is Islam or the highway.  Specifically the highway to hell.

Now, throughout the Quran we get far more statements similar to Surah 3:85 than we do to 2:62.  That is why 2:62 stands out so much.  How do we reconcile these two statements?

The biggest sin in Islam is shirk, which is to associate a partner with Allah.  Traditionally, most Muslims have considered Christian Trinitarianism to be shirk.  Could the Quran be saying that Trinitarianism can get you into heaven?  There were very few Arians left at the time of Muhammad.  They were probably less than 1% of the Christian population at the time.  There isn’t much evidence that Muhammad encountered Arians either.  It should be pointed out that Arians believed in the death and resurrection of Christ which the Quran denies.

Now, there were many non-orthodox groups.  There were the Monophysites, the Nestorians, and the Monothelites.  On top of that you had the traditional Christians of the Byzantine Empire.  All of these groups were Trinitarian.  They only had Christological differences.

One could say that the author didn’t know about the Trinity yet, but the author is Allah so that doesn’t work.  There is also the fact that the Quran doesn’t ever get Christian Trinitarianism correct.  I’m not just talking about Surah 5 either.  It clearly doesn’t understand the language of the Creeds of the fourth century, let alone further works.  I suppose Allah forgot to read St. Augustine’s book on the Trinity.

Now, what’s interesting is that Jews are also mentioned in this passage.  Jews are not Trinitarian so the issue of shirk doesn’t come up.  Also, this doesn’t differentiate between Jews and Christians, some of which would have sects that may be more favorable to Islam.

I suppose one answer could be that the three groups mentioned here have pure forms which were originally Islamic in nature.  The Quran says elsewhere that these groups were founded by Muslims such as Jesus and Moses.  The problem with this interpretation is that the Quran never says this about the Sabeans so this interpretation doesn’t work.  Also, these original Islamic forms of Christianity and Judaism were long gone at the time of Muhammad and the Jews and Christians would have not known about them.

I’m not a hardliner when it comes to reconciling contradictions.  I’ll usually give my opponent the benefit of the doubt just like I’d expect the benefit of the doubt.  I’d invite my Muslim readers to offer a solution to this dilemma.  I’m curious as to what you’d say.

I also invite Christian readers to give their input on these passages.  There may be something that I’m missing in my analysis.  Jews are also welcome to weigh in on this dilemma.  I’ve never met a Sabean before but if there are any left, feel free to comment.