The Quran is very emphatic in its rejection of the Christian concept of God (i.e. the Trinity), and continuously enforces Tawheed. However, when one looks at the way the Quran speaks of the Trinity, Trinitarians are stuck in confusion knowing that what the Quran refers to as the Trinity is in fact not the an accurate representation of Trinitarian doctrine at all. Many verses illustrate this, such as Surah 5:116 and Surah 10:68. Why is this important? The main reason is this: if the Quran is really God's word, as Muslims believe, then we should expect everything in it to be true. And since Allah, who is said to be the author of the Quran, is all-knowing, he should know what Christians believe and accurately represent those beliefs. If the Quran misrepresents Christianity, then it [the Quran] is false. Today, we will study one example found in Surah Al-Mu'minun (chapter 23) at verse 91, which gives insight into what the author of the Quran believed about Christianity.
Before we go further, it is important to notice something in the last line of the verse:
"He is free from the sort of things they attribute to him!"
Who is the "they" referring to? Knowing this will provide further insight into this passage, because throughout the verse it is describing what the "they" believe, and it is refuting these believes it describes. It attributes each of these beliefs to a group of people rather than simply one single person. (We know this because the plural pronoun "they" is used. It wouldn't make sense to say "Allah is free from what he/she/it attributes to him", because no antecedent is given in such a hypothetical verse.) The beliefs of this group of people that Surah 23:91 attacks are these:
God having a son "No Son did Allah beget"; Deities [gods] competing with each other "each god would have taken away what he had created, and some would have lorded it over others!"
Here are some commentaries which answer who's beliefs that this verse is attacking are:
"The belief alleging that God has a son is naïve, based on a faulty concept of Godhead. One that does not appreciate the huge gulf between the nature of the eternal God, and the nature of mortal humans. Nor does it appreciate the great wisdom that allows mortals to procreate, so that they compensate for the short duration of their lives. This shortcoming does not apply to God." (Sayyid Qutb, Fi Zilal al-Qur'an Volume 9, pg. 93-94)
"It should be, noted that this is a general refutation of the belief that Allah has a child or children, and incidentally refutes the Christian belief that Christ is the son of God. Yet even some eminent commentators confine this to the refutation of the Christian belief. Obviously, there is no reason why it was necessary to refute the Christian belief specifically in this context, when the whole discourse has been directed towards the disbelievers of Makkah alone, who were, like the Christians, guilty of this sort of shirk." (Commentary from the Islamic Studies website, can be viewed here)
"In brief words the verse [Surah 23:91] very effectively demonstrates the futility and falsity of the Christian dogma that Jesus is God's son. It purports to say that a son is needed by one to help him carry on in his affairs, but as God is the creator of the heavens and the earth and the Sole Master and Controller of the whole universe, He does need the help or assistance of any helper or son. Moreover, the whole universe appears to be subject to one uniform law and the unity of the design and purpose and control points to the Unity of the Designer and the Controller. The duality of control and authority implies confusion and disorder." (Hadrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad, The Holy Qur'an with English Translation and Commentary Volume 4, pg. 2234)
We can clearly see from the commentaries above that Surah 23:91 refers to Christians directly, or that Christians are included in a group of people in whom the verse attributes these beliefs. Either way, the point is this: The Quran depicts Christians (and others) as believing these ideas that Surah 23:91. This is proven to be true in the fact that commentators interpret this verse as including Christians in a vast group of others who hold these beliefs, or addressing Christians directly.
Now we will go through each of these beliefs and discover if they accurately represent Christianity.
"No Son did Allah beget"
It needs to be recognized that the majority of English translations actually say something along the lines of "Allah has not taken any son" (This would seem to imply This would seem to be the proper translation in light of the fact that the Arabic verb used here (اخذ), is always translated as "take" rather than "begotten":
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| This is from the Quran Corpus website |
Many Arabic dictionaries also confirm that this word means "take" not "begotten" or "beget".
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| This is taken from William Lane's Arabic-English Lexicon (pg. 28) |
Another definition/example given in the above-cited lexicon is "he adopted". This is important because this, since it is referring to Christians (as we have already demonstrated), misrepresents Christian doctrine. To say that Christians believe that Jesus was adopted as the son of God, or "taken" (to use the language of the Quran) as God's Son is to be in error. Here are some examples from Christian literature and scholarly books which show that Christianity teaches that Jesus has eternally existed as the Son of God:
"All else in the world is created in time; the Son is 'eternally begotten, not created', along with the Holy Spirit, who eternally proceeds." (Kevin Giles, The Eternal Generation of the Son: Maintaining Orthodoxy in Trinitarian Theology, pg. 69)
"His [the Son] special characteristic as the Second Person of the Trinity is that He is eternally begotten of the Father.....By means of eternal generation the Father is the cause of the personal existence of the Son within the Divine Being." (Louis Berkhof, A Summary of Christian Doctrine, pg. 32)
"And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, begotten from the Father before all ages," (The Nicene Creed)
"Thus, the Son, whom [the Father] had from eternity, has been eternally begotten, and with reason we must say that he has eternally received being." (Richard of Saint Victor, On the Trinity, Book 6.16 [pg. 222])
As we have seen clearly, it is false for the Quran to assert that Christians are in the group of people whom the Quran attacks for saying that Allah has "taken" a son. We believe Jesus Christ as eternally existed as God's Son and this is documented in Christian history and literature.
"each god would have taken away what he had created, and some would have lorded it over others!"
The Quran seems to be saying this: "if what these people (Christians included) were saying is true, these deities (the hypothetical Father and Son) would be fighting with each other and be in conflict!", thereby implicitly stating that Christians believe that the persons of the Trinity have been in eternal conflict with one another. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Throughout history as well as modern-day scholarship, it has been well known that Trinitarianism teaches that the three divine persons have been in harmony and love with one another:
"Our love finds its explanation in the fact that we are created in the image of the Holy Trinity, the origin of our love." (Dumitru Staniloae, Orthodox Dogmatic Theology Volume 1, pg. 245)
"Consistency among the persons of the Trinity reflects itself in consistency in what they do toward human beings and the world....The Father and the Son and the Spirit act in harmony with their love for one another....The Father necessarily loves the Son through the Spirit...Each of the persons of the Trinity is a perfectly lovely object of love." (Vern S. Poythress, Logic: A God-Centered Approach to the Foundation of Western Thought, pg. 89)
"...he encourages the discordant Christians in the capital to find harmony with one another by recognizing the internal harmony of the Trinity. All forms of peace and concord derive from the peace of the Trinity..." (Christopher A. Beeley, Gregory of Nazianzus on the Trinity and the Knowledge of God, pg. 230)
Conclusion
We have seen from the material presented above that the author of the Quran did not have an accurate understanding of the Christian faith, nor did he represent it fairly. This is one of many examples in which the Quran is greatly in error.
"All else in the world is created in time; the Son is 'eternally begotten, not created', along with the Holy Spirit, who eternally proceeds." (Kevin Giles, The Eternal Generation of the Son: Maintaining Orthodoxy in Trinitarian Theology, pg. 69)
"His [the Son] special characteristic as the Second Person of the Trinity is that He is eternally begotten of the Father.....By means of eternal generation the Father is the cause of the personal existence of the Son within the Divine Being." (Louis Berkhof, A Summary of Christian Doctrine, pg. 32)
"And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, begotten from the Father before all ages," (The Nicene Creed)
"Thus, the Son, whom [the Father] had from eternity, has been eternally begotten, and with reason we must say that he has eternally received being." (Richard of Saint Victor, On the Trinity, Book 6.16 [pg. 222])
As we have seen clearly, it is false for the Quran to assert that Christians are in the group of people whom the Quran attacks for saying that Allah has "taken" a son. We believe Jesus Christ as eternally existed as God's Son and this is documented in Christian history and literature.
"each god would have taken away what he had created, and some would have lorded it over others!"
The Quran seems to be saying this: "if what these people (Christians included) were saying is true, these deities (the hypothetical Father and Son) would be fighting with each other and be in conflict!", thereby implicitly stating that Christians believe that the persons of the Trinity have been in eternal conflict with one another. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Throughout history as well as modern-day scholarship, it has been well known that Trinitarianism teaches that the three divine persons have been in harmony and love with one another:
"...the notion of multiple divine attributes within a simple divine nature is only possible, and thus an exclusive property of, the Triune God. According to our model, the divine nature, the multiplicity of attributes, and the harmony between them, do not exist in any fashion except within the context of the Triune persons....but only as the divine persons have eternally and immutably expressed themselves in communion with one another by the orchestration of the Father. Likewise, the divine attributes are only able to mutually define one another, and constitute a single harmony, through the mediation of the Son." (Brant Bosserman, The Trinity and the Vindication of Christian Paradox, pg. 194)
"It is as the triune God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—that we know God as love, as holy, as good, as blessed. The Trinity reveals God to us as the fullness of being, the true life, perfect holiness, eternal beauty and glory. In God, too, there is unity in diversity, diversity in unity; this order and this harmony are present in him absolutely." (Herman Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics: Abridged in One Volume, pg. 245)
"Our love finds its explanation in the fact that we are created in the image of the Holy Trinity, the origin of our love." (Dumitru Staniloae, Orthodox Dogmatic Theology Volume 1, pg. 245)
"Consistency among the persons of the Trinity reflects itself in consistency in what they do toward human beings and the world....The Father and the Son and the Spirit act in harmony with their love for one another....The Father necessarily loves the Son through the Spirit...Each of the persons of the Trinity is a perfectly lovely object of love." (Vern S. Poythress, Logic: A God-Centered Approach to the Foundation of Western Thought, pg. 89)
"...he encourages the discordant Christians in the capital to find harmony with one another by recognizing the internal harmony of the Trinity. All forms of peace and concord derive from the peace of the Trinity..." (Christopher A. Beeley, Gregory of Nazianzus on the Trinity and the Knowledge of God, pg. 230)
Conclusion
We have seen from the material presented above that the author of the Quran did not have an accurate understanding of the Christian faith, nor did he represent it fairly. This is one of many examples in which the Quran is greatly in error.
