How Islam understands Jesus, the Trinity and the Christian claim

Program / Course 18: World Religions / Lesson 2.4

What you will learn

• Describe the honored place of Jesus (Isa) and Mary in the Qur’an and in Muslim devotion.
• State the Muslim objections to the Trinity, the divinity of Christ and the crucifixion.
• Explain the Muslim view that earlier scriptures were altered, and the Christian reply.
• Outline the history of Christian and Muslim relations and the range of present Christian responses.

The big idea

Islam honors Jesus as a great prophet and as the Messiah, born of the virgin Mary, who worked miracles by God’s permission. It denies that he is the Son of God, that God is a Trinity, and, in the common reading, that he was crucified. For Muslims these doctrines would compromise the oneness of God. Christians reply from the New Testament and the creeds that Christ is the eternal Son, who died and rose. The two faiths honor the same figure and disagree about who he is.

Key terms

Isa

The Arabic name for Jesus in the Qur’an, where he is called the Messiah (al-Masih), a Word from God and a Spirit from him.

Tahrif

The Muslim teaching that earlier scriptures were corrupted, in text or in interpretation, by their followers.

People of the Book (ahl al-kitab)

The Qur’an’s term for Jews and Christians, who received earlier scriptures and are given a respected place in Islamic law.

Trinity

The Christian doctrine that the one God exists eternally as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, three persons sharing one divine nature.

Hypostatic union

The Christian teaching that in Christ the divine and human natures are united in one person.

Dhimmi

In classical Islamic law, a non-Muslim under protection who pays a tax and keeps their religion, with limits on public rights.

Docetism

An early view that Christ only appeared to suffer. Some compare it with the Muslim reading of the crucifixion, though the reasons differ.

Background

Jesus is named in the Qur’an more often than Muhammad is. He is born of the virgin Mary, speaks as an infant, heals the blind and the leper, and raises the dead by God’s permission (Qur’an 3:45-49, 19:16-35). Mary has a whole sura named for her and is the only woman named in the Qur’an. Muslims expect the return of Jesus at the end of time.

At the same time the Qur’an warns Christians to say nothing about God but the truth: the Messiah, son of Mary, is God’s messenger, and God has no son (Qur’an 4:171, 5:72-75, 112). Muslim tradition has read these verses as a rejection of Christian doctrine, and they have shaped Muslim and Christian conversation ever since.

Step-by-step explanation

Step 1: The Muslim honor of Jesus and Mary

Muslims call Jesus the Messiah, a Word from God, and a Spirit from him. They affirm the virgin birth and his miracles. They love him as a prophet who preached worship of one God and who will return. Many Muslims are hurt by suggestions that they do not respect Jesus. A Muslim who spoke ill of Jesus would be breaking a basic tenet of faith.

These honors are not a form of Christian belief. The Qur’an places Jesus among the prophets: he is a servant of God and a messenger, not his equal. It says that he is like Adam in being created (3:59). Muslim thinkers hold that Jesus himself taught tawhid, and that the Christian church departed from his message.

Step 2: The Muslim objection to the Trinity and the incarnation

The Qur’an says “Say not Three” (4:171) and declares that God neither begets nor is begotten (112:3). Muslim theologians have understood the Christian creeds to teach three gods, or a God who has a son as men have sons. For Muslims, any such teaching is shirk.

Christians reply that this is not what the creeds mean. The Son is begotten eternally, not by a physical act, and the three persons are one God, not three gods. They hold the doctrine as a consequence of what the New Testament says of Christ and of the Spirit (Matthew 28:19, John 1:1-14). Careful Muslim theologians have often acknowledged the claim to be one God, while still rejecting the doctrine as impossible for God. The disagreement concerns whether God can be known as Father, Son and Spirit, or whether this compromises his transcendence.

Step 3: The crucifixion

The Qur’an says of Jesus: “they did not kill him, nor did they crucify him, but it was made to appear so to them” (4:157). Most Muslims have understood this to mean that God saved Jesus and raised him to himself, with someone else, or the appearance of him, put on the cross. Some modern Muslim writers have understood it differently, and a minority hold that Jesus was crucified but not killed in the way his enemies intended.

The crucifixion and resurrection are the center of the Christian gospel (1 Corinthians 15:3-4). Historians, whatever their faith, overwhelmingly hold that Jesus was crucified under Pontius Pilate, a point supported by Roman and Jewish sources. Muslims who deny it do so on the authority of the Qur’an, not on historical grounds. Here the two faiths come to a real difference in how they decide what is true: Christians rest on the testimony of the apostles, and Muslims on the final revelation.

Step 4: The charge that earlier scriptures were altered

Many Muslims teach that the Torah and Gospel have been altered, or at least misread, because their text no longer matches what was revealed. The Qur’an itself speaks of some of the People of the Book changing words (for example 2:75), and later scholars debated whether this meant a change of text or of meaning. Medieval Muslim writers such as Ibn Hazm argued for the first, and others, such as al-Ghazali, for the second.

Christians answer that the manuscript evidence shows the New Testament to have been preserved with a high degree of accuracy, with manuscripts older than Islam. They add that the Qur’an itself tells Christians to judge by what God has revealed in the Gospel (5:47), a verse that seems to presuppose its text to be reliable. Muslim scholars reply that this means the original Gospel, which they hold is not the four Gospels as now preserved. This is a major point of debate.

Step 5: History and the present

The history includes cooperation and conflict: Muslim rule over Christian communities in the Middle East and Spain, the Crusades, the Ottoman empire, colonial rule and modern migration. Under Muslim rule, Christians had protection but also limits. In some places Christian communities today face persecution, and in others Muslims face prejudice in majority Christian lands.

Christians differ in their response. Catholic teaching since the Second Vatican Council has called for mutual understanding. Orthodox Christians in the Middle East often speak from long experience of living together. Evangelical Protestants often combine friendship with a missionary aim. In 2007 a group of Muslim scholars wrote to Christian leaders a letter called A Common Word, which pointed to love of God and neighbor as common ground, and Christian leaders replied in various ways.

1. What does the Qur’an say about Jesus that a Christian could affirm?
2. What exactly is the Muslim objection to the Trinity, and does it describe what Christian creeds teach?
3. Why do Muslims and Christians treat the crucifixion differently, and on what grounds?
4. How would you answer the charge that the Gospels were altered, using evidence and not insults?
5. What does the verse “Say not Three” tell you about the concern behind the objection?
6. How can a Christian honor the Muslim love of Jesus while still holding that Muslims misunderstand him?

Examples

Different perspectives

Muslim

Muslim scholars hold that Jesus was a prophet, that the Trinity and the incarnation compromise God’s oneness, that the Qur’an corrects Christian error, and that the crucifixion as Christians describe it did not occur. Many Muslim thinkers also emphasize shared values, such as love of God and neighbor, and quote Qur’an 5:82 on the nearness of Christians in affection.

Catholic

Catholic teaching holds that Christ is the eternal Son, true God and true man, who died and rose. The Council in Nostra Aetate urged Christians and Muslims to forget past quarrels and work for mutual understanding. The Church holds that Muslims, with Christians, adore the one merciful God, and also holds that Christian faith in Christ’s divinity cannot be set aside.

Orthodox

Orthodox theology defends the Trinity as the revelation of God as love and communion, and treats Islam as a monotheism that denies it. Eastern Christians, among them John of Damascus in the eighth century, wrote some of the earliest Christian replies to Islam. Orthodox communities in Muslim lands often stress practical coexistence.

Protestant

Protestants hold the Trinity and the atoning death of Christ as essential to the gospel. Evangelical writers often draw on the manuscript evidence for the reliability of the New Testament and engage Muslims in dialogue or witness. Mainline Protestants more often stress common ground, and Protestant bodies disagree about the right balance.

Scholarly

Historians of religion note that the Qur’an arose in an Arabian setting where Jewish and Christian groups of varied belief were present, and scholars debate which Christian sources it knew. Muslims generally reject the view that the Qur’an depends on earlier texts. This is an area of disagreement between insider and outsider scholarship.

Why it matters

More than a billion Christians and about two billion Muslims live as neighbors in the same cities. Each side often misdescribes the other, and misunderstanding fuels suspicion. A Christian who knows what Muslims actually object to can answer the real question, and one who knows what Muslims honor in Jesus can speak with respect and without false dilemmas.

Common misunderstandings

Knowledge check

Think it through

1. What would you want a Muslim neighbor to understand about the Trinity, and how would you say it in plain words?
2. Why might the honor Muslims give to Jesus be a place to start a conversation?
3. How should a Christian respond when Muslims say the Christian Bible was changed?
4. What can the history of Christian and Muslim relations teach about how to speak today?

Independent assignment

Reading the Qur’an on Jesus

In your notebook, read Qur’an sura 19 (Maryam) and sura 3:42-59 in a translation acceptable to Muslim readers, and the Gospel of Luke 1:26-38. Write about 300 words comparing the accounts of the annunciation, noting similarities and differences. Then write 200 words stating, as a Muslim would, why the Trinity is rejected, and 200 words giving the Christian reply. Fill in the Jesus and God row of the Islam column of your grid.

Further study

• The Qur’an, The Qur’an in English translation Read suras 3, 4:157-171, 5:72-75, 19 and 112 in a translation Muslims accept.
• Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Trinity Read for an accurate statement of the Trinity, which is the Christian doctrine Muslims reject.
• Council of Nicaea (325) and Council of Constantinople (381), The Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed Read the creed itself to see what Christians confess about the Son.
• Athanasius of Alexandria, On the Incarnation of the Word Read the opening chapters for the Christian reasons the Word became flesh.
• John 1:14 The Word was made flesh.
• 1 Corinthians 15:3 Christ died for our sins and rose, the center of the gospel.
• Luke 1:35 The angel’s word to Mary.