The Quran – The Holy Book of the Islamic Faith
The first Islamic document to attack Christianity is not some polemicist in the 7th or 8th Century but the Quran itself. The Quran attacks doctrines such as the Trinity and the Crucifixion of Christ. It attacks Judaism as well.
The unfortunate thing for muslims is that the Quran misrepresents the two religions that it claims to supersede. Not just on some small technicality but very badly and on some of the core doctrines of both faiths.
A good example is Surah 9:30 which reads:
The Jews say, “Ezra is the son of Allah “; and the Christians say, “The Messiah is the son of Allah .” That is their statement from their mouths; they imitate the saying of those who disbelieved [before them]. May Allah destroy them; how are they deluded?
What is said about the Christians is entirely true. Christians have always taught that the Messiah is the Son of God. However, the statement that the Jews think Ezra is the Son of God is plain wrong. The Quran elsewhere knows that the nature of the Son of God in Christianity is a divine figure. Seeing as the terminology with Ezra and the Jews is used the same way as the Messiah and Christianity implies that Jews view Ezra the same way as Christians view Jesus which is entirely incorrect.
The problems continue for the Quran. Surah 5 attacks the doctrine of the Trinity but can’t get the Trinity correct. The Trinity is one God eternally existent in Three Divine Persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The Quran thinks it is three Gods. These three God’s are Allah, Jesus, and Mary.
Surah 5:116 reads:
And [beware the Day] when Allah will say, “O Jesus, Son of Mary, did you say to the people, ‘Take me and my mother as deities besides Allah ?'” He will say, “Exalted are You! It was not for me to say that to which I have no right. If I had said it, You would have known it. You know what is within myself, and I do not know what is within Yourself. Indeed, it is You who is Knower of the unseen.
Christians have never said this so in theory, they have nothing to worry about. Regardless, the Quran thinks this is what Christians believe. This is apparent in the verses leading up to 116.
Verse 73 reads:
They have certainly disbelieved who say, ” Allah is the third of three.” And there is no god except one God. And if they do not desist from what they are saying, there will surely afflict the disbelievers among them a painful punishment.
Since the word Trinity comes from the word three, the Trinity seems to be the object of attack here. Does this include Mary in place of the Holy Spirit? Yes it does, and we can tell this by verse 75 which reads:
The Messiah, son of Mary, was not but a messenger; [other] messengers have passed on before him. And his mother was a supporter of truth. They both used to eat food. Look how We make clear to them the signs; then look how they are deluded.
Mary is part of the three. The Quran is in error here regarding the Trinity. Though Christians venerate Mary, she is not part of the Trinity.
Imagine as a young boy, Muhammad goes on a caravan trip to Syria. No doubt, the towns and cities would have been full of Byzantine Churches. Byzantine Churches are full of icons. Most have large icons of the virgin Mary, the Mother of God. As an illiterate merchant, it would have been easy to look at the icon and reach some false conclusions. Years later when he heard that the Christians believe in a Trinity it is obvious that he concluded that the Christians worship three Gods, the Father, the Mother, and the Son.
When we look at it this way, we can see why the Quran made the error. We also see that the Quran is not from God since God knew what the Christians believed. He also knew what the Jews believed.
I would invite any Islamic apologist to make a serious effort to answering these serious objections to their faith.
You are misquoting al Qur’an (it reads The Jews say, “UZAIR is the son of Allah “; and the Christians say, …) and you are reading the trinity into al Qur’an (as you do in the Bible…)
Two major errors in your post
I quoted from an online Quranic translation so your beef is with other muslims, not me. Regardless, it is a mistake in the Quran and no Jews have ever believed it. The Quran doesn’t describe the Trinity. It describes what it thinks is the Trinity and misses the mark entirely.
I advise you to learn about the various opinions about the meaning of “Uzair”. That might help to prevent major embarrassing errors presented in your post.
“The Quran doesn’t describe the Trinity.” Exactly. (Btw, I guess if we look into what you think is the “Trinity” you miss the mark entirely.)
Thank you for taking an interest in my posts.
Can you find me a Jewish source that Says Uzair is the son of God because thats what the verse says they believe?
You are correct, the Quran doesn’t describe the Trinity but it tries. I know you believe that Jesus and the apostles didn’t preach the doctrine but that is irrelevant since no muslims will deny that its what the Church taught at the time the Quran was written/revealed. It shouldn’t have a problem getting it right. This was sung in creeds in the Churches throughout the world and preached by the priests of those churches. Every Christian knew about it. The question is, if the Quran is from God, why does he completely miss the mark on this doctrine? When St. John of Damascus wrote his critique of Islam in the early 700’s he had a far greater grasp on Islam than the Quran does on Christianity or Judaism. St. John of Damascus was only a mere man.
Allan, regarding the matter of Sura 5:116 Tom Holland points out something related from history:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DoeYXH3WkAcAIUt.jpg
I actually think this is one of those lose-lose scenarios for Islam.
But the above is where the strange idea of Sura 5:116’s Trinity comes from, then the defense that Allah is merely describing an actual (if exceedingly obscure) sect comes into play – but then it is becomes obvious that Muhammad did in fact have contact with various sects, Gnostics, Zoroastrians, Jews and Christians who influenced his philosophies – something which Muslims adamantly deny!
OTOH if this sect did not have any bearing on Sura 5:116… Then your original point about the author of the Quran totally misunderstanding the authentic doctrine of the Trinity stands.
Allah says the Quran is the most concise, the clearest, the most perfect book ever written. could it be less coming from a god? so why do you need people to tell you about what it says?
“ReciteAlQuran”
So, you believe that the Qur’an is from God because it says so ? But then, why don’t you believe that Joseph Smith or Mirza Ghulam Ahmad are prophets superseding all previous religions because they say so ?
Hello Allan,
since I always try to give my opponents the maximum benefit of doubt, and since
1) There is a strong (and in many cases, sincere) belief among Muslims that the Qur’an’s teaching is a coherent whole
2) The Qur’an boasts of having no internal contradictions
3) There is the “Qur’an-only” school of thought in Islam
I often practice the following thought experiment : let us forget all the “mainstream Muslim interpretations” of Quranic verses not directly expressed in the Qur’an itself.
What is the result of this experiment ? As far as I can tell, the surprising result is that the scattered pronouncements of the Qur’an on Judaism or Christianity do not form a coherent whole. (Sometimes harsh) criticism alternates with claims of continuity with the previous Abrahamic religions, and the confusing impression is made worse by the Qur’an “concise” style which leaves the door open to often diametrically opposite interpretations.
Some examples :
a) Are Surah 5:73 or 4:171 about the Trinity (official Catholic doctrine) or Tritheism (officially “registered” and condemned Catholic heresy)? Yes, I know which one is the mainstream Muslim interpretation, but it seems purely arbitrary.
b) When the Qur’an mentions the ideas of “Allah having a son” and Jesus being a “deity BESIDES Allah” and condemns them, is this a condemnation of Jesus’ divine sonship (Catholic doctrine) or of the Arian heresy of Jesus the first-created creature which God needs to create all the other creatures ? Yes, I know which one is the mainstream Muslim interpretation, but it seems purely arbitrary. “Sufficient is Allah as a disposer of affairs” looks a lot like a standard Catholic argument in the refutation of Arianism.
c) Did you notice how 5:73 does not say that not all those who say “three” will be painfully punished, but rather that it will adversely affect the “disbelievers among them” ? So, saying “three” does not directly entail disbelief ? And the disbelievers will be painfully punished anyway, won’t they ?
d) If Christians are idolaters and polytheists, why does 5:82 describe them as “nearest in affection” to Muslims ? Famous Qur’an commentator M. Asad sees the problem and claims that “subjectively” Christians are not idolaters and polytheists but that “objectively” they are so. In other words, they are well-meaning but somewhat dense people, and have been so for two millenia. This goes against Abraham Lincoln’s common-sense observation that “you can fool a few people for a long time, or a lot of people for a short time, but not both”.
Worse than that, the verse is in the FUTURE tense and therefore about Christians AFTER Muhammad. So Muslims cannot save their position by claiming that Christians have no excuse now that Islam has been revealed.
Jonathan,
The Quran actually makes two falsifiable claims to its divine inspiration:
1) No internal contradictions (Sura 4:82) as you pointed out;
2) No man or djinn can produce something like it (Sura 17:88 and others.
For 1) it is easy to demonstrate various internal and external contradictions.
For 2) the Quran defeats itself with Sura 53:19-20 which was revealed together with the Satanic Verses by Iblis (a djinn!) tricking Muhammad.
Actually this makes perfect sense if one assumes that Allah and Jibril are actually Iblis as many clues point to(https://twitter.com/scottthong/status/1019774354169552896) then OF COURSE they all sound alike to Muhammad!
Nice article, Allan.
To bolster your case that the Jews do consider Ezra as the Son of God, you could also mention:
Jews knowledgeable about their scriptures would tell you that in the Old Testament, in the 7th Chapter of Ezra, first verse, it is recorded that Ezra IS THE SON OF SERAIAH [not God!].
Like Muslims, Jews believe that the god of the universe has no son: From the Jewish holy text Exodus Rabbah 29 we read about God: “I am the first, I have no father; I am the last, I have no brother. Beside Me there is no God; I HAVE NO SON.”