When David Wood debated Mohammed Hijab, he brought up the anthropomorphic nature of the Muslim god Allah which can be found in the Quran but mostly in the Hadith. Mohammed Hijab didn’t know what do with it. He responded to a few things, misrepresented others, and dodged others. He was unaware that Muslims scholars had taught this as he asked Wood to provide Muslim scholars who believed this.
When a Western Christian abandons Christianity for Islam, he thinks that he’s converting to something similar to Jewish Unitarianism. He couldn’t be more wrong. In the Muslim sources Allah appears to have a physical body complete with a face, two right hands, a shin, and many other body parts. When one studies Islamic sources, it clearly has the stamp of a religion from seventh century Arabia that’s not in touch with the Biblical tradition.
This isn’t a problem for Christianity as we have rich incarnation theology given throughout the New Testament and many Christophanies in the Hebrew Bible. The last thing that you can say about the God of the Hebrew Bible is that he’s Unitarian. The Trinity is a brilliant theological concept and the only way to make sense of the information about God in both testaments. James White begins his book The Forgotten Trinity with the words: I love the Trinity. I think I can agree with him here.
With this information out there, it means that Christians now have the advantage in terms of the doctrine of God, correct? On paper yes, in practicality no. Why is this? Because one has to read very deep into the Muslim sources to find these concepts. It takes training, knowledge of the sources, and critical thinking skills.
The only apologists out there that are currently capable of making this argument in a coordinated way are Sam Shamoun, David Wood, and Anthony Rogers. They’ve all produced material regarding this on their respective YouTube channels. Although I plan to attain their level of knowledge, I’m a long ways off.
For those who have only read the Quran, the key verse is Surah 38:75 which reads:
He said, “O Satan, what prevented you from prostrating before what I created with My Own hands? Are you too proud, or were you one of the exalted?”
When one reads the preceding verses, we see that it was Adam that was created with Allah’s hands. Technically Satan should have been bowing down to everything if its meant to be metaphorical. Many Hadiths expand on this anthropomorphic nature of Allah.
Allah seems to be the most anthropomorphic god in the monotheistic traditions. What most Westerners think about Tawheed, that it’s simply Jewish Unitarianism couldn’t be further from the truth. Obviously a Christian disillusioned with Trinitarian doctrine will look to Islam over Judaism since Jews make it almost impossible to convert.
When I debate with Muslims, I welcome debating the Trinity. It’s probably my favorite topic to debate. This is because of Surah 5. If they want to criticize the Trinity, they have to deal with Allah’s utter collapse in critiquing the doctrine. For most Christians though, they might want to go on the offensive. This is where we can shine. It’ll take a lot of research though. Maybe those three can help us by writing a book on the subject? Sam? David? Anthony?
After buying their collaborative book: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OI2fscM_U8E
I did reply to Anthony Rogers’ confirmation email by suggesting he compiles and footnotes the 70+ pages of citations he has already gathered, on the many body parts of Allah.
Shouldn’t let that effort go to waste!
a muslim here.
tawhid belief is very strong and muslims choose to believe those kind of verses in Quran is metaphorical. I tried to find resources for the discussion of Allah’s hand in English but I couldn’t find a detailed one. If you understand how Islam understand Allah’s existence and Allah’s names, and hot it relates to human being you can read this book- words, thirtieth chapter. http://www.erisale.com/?locale=en&bookId=201&pageNo=655#content.en.201.557 It is a bit dense, but I like it a lot. I just read your blog and it seems like you need to read more to understand the perspective of a muslim.
Hello Suzi,
Welcome to my website. Feel free to comment anytime or even subscribe.
If you look at the video above, I think you’ll see that many of the verses in the Quran and the Hadith cannot be understood to be metaphorical. In the video, there are Muslim scholars admitting that Allah has physical hands and a physical body. The Hadith are very explicit. I would recommend watching the video.
Thanks for your point of view and I look forward to hearing from you again.
God bless,
Allan
Hello Suzi,
Allow me to share from a Muslim site, which David Wood had mentioned in his discussions with Anthony Rogers.
In short, it has actually been the mainstream, orthodox Islamic position for centuries that Allah has literal body parts (just that they are not like any body parts of humans or animals). It is considered heresy to deny this.
I think it’s beyond your authority to redefine what Islam teaches – but it’s your choice whether to accept or reject it.
https://islamqa.info/en/answers/151794/the-divine-attributes-are-to-be-affirmed-in-a-literal-sense-not-metaphorical
Question
I am a teacher of Arabic language, and based on my literary perceptivity and my study of metaphor, I think that some of the verses which speak of the divine attributes are more metaphorical than literal.
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Answer
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The Qur’an and Sunnah came to teach people about the attributes of their God, and this can only be done by understanding the words in a real sense; this is the basic principle with regard to statements. The Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) conveyed the Holy Qur’an in both wording and meaning; not a single letter was narrated from him to suggest that any of the divine attributes should be interpreted in a way different from its apparent meaning, or that its apparent meaning is not intended
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How could it be otherwise when it is proven in a number of saheeh hadeeths, the authenticity of which is agreed upon, that these attributes are to be affirmed, and there are other attributes mentioned in other hadeeths, such as His descending, His foot, His smiling, and His rejoicing, without any word to suggest that they should be understood in a way different from the apparent meaning, and without any Sahaabi having found it problematic to take them as they appear to be and according to what may be understood from them.
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When innovations appeared, and people emerged who said that these attributes were to be understood in a metaphorical, rather than a real, sense – as was the view of the Jahamis and Mu‘tazilah and those who agreed with them – the early generations and leading scholars responded by stating that these attributes are to be understood in a real sense, not in a metaphorical sense. Their comments on this matter are abundant and well-known.