The Holy Quran describes Jesus, may peace be on him, as a very honored prophet of God. Actually his name occurs in the Quran more often than of the seal of the prophets, the Holy Prophet Muhammad. There is a chapter of the Quran named after Mother Mary!
However, the Holy Quran is replete with teachings of pure Monotheism, in keeping with the tradition of all the Jewish Prophets and prophets of God every where else in the world. The Holy Quran lays arguments from several angles and perspectives.
One of the shining Quranic arguments is that Jesus, may peace be on him, never said to worship him. Additionally, Allah did not allow later interpolaters of the Bible to insert anything to that effect. So, the Muslims have always been able to issue a friendly challenge to the Trinitarian Christians, to show them any verse from the Bible, where Jesus has asked them to worship him, which was to be expected if he is divine. Of course, the Bible encourages worship of God the father or praying to Him on scores of occasions. Here are the verses of the Holy Quran on the basis of which the Muslims are easily able to issue this challenge and will continue to do that until all Christians become Unitarian, as President Thomas Jefferson predicted that they will:
And We sent no Messenger before thee but We revealed to him, saying, ‘There is no God but I; so worship Me alone.’ And they say, ‘The Gracious God has taken to Himself a son.’ Holy is He. Nay, they are only honored servants. They speak not before He speaks, and they act only by His command. He knows what is before them and what is behind them, and they intercede not except for him whom He approves, and they act cautiously for fear of Him. (Al Quran 21:26-29)
Further reading:
Two natures of Jesus: another Christian mystery!
The First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea and the Doctrine of Trinity
The concept of Trinity has no legs to stand on
Modalism: A stage in the development of Trinity
Third Council of Constantinople (680-681): Does Jesus has one nature / operation or two?
The Council of Nicaea and three others
Christianity: A Journey From Facts to Fiction
Nestorius: was he a strict monotheist?
President Thomas Jefferson — Was he a monotheist?
Categories: CHRISTIANITY, Islam, Religion
Dear Dr. Shah, I am not a Biblical theologian, nor an authority in these matters. But, I think that a great many American Christians would counter with John 14:6 “Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” NIV and John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” NIV. I agree that Jesus (PBOH)never asked to be worshipped as one would God, but rather the key word in the second passage is “believes” in reference to the His declaration in the first passage. Many Christians do ‘worship’ Jesus(PBOH) as they ‘believe’ that He is Worthy, but whether they are right or wrong is not for me to say. As for myself, I declare that I believe and worship ‘The One God of Us All’ and have not figured out ‘the mysteries’ yet enough to decide on the other details entirely. That does not mean that I’m not seeking, however!
Thank you dear Robert Adams for your comment and for agreeing that Jesus never, ‘asked to be worshiped.’
Evidence for Unitarianism and against Trinity has become over-whelming in this age of information, thanks to internet and all the websites. I have added a lot of links in the post since your comment, for further reading:
Two natures of Jesus: another Christian mystery!
The First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea and the Doctrine of Trinity
The concept of Trinity has no legs to stand on
Modalism: A stage in the development of Trinity
Third Council of Constantinople (680-681): Does Jesus has one nature / operation or two?
The Council of Nicaea and three others
Christianity: A Journey From Facts to Fiction
Nestorius: was he a strict monotheist?
President Thomas Jefferson — Was he a monotheist?
That from the Bible it can be shown that Jesus (PBUH) never asked his followers to worship him is telling. In the Quran this is alluded to in the following verse, in a sort of indirect fashion.
[5:117] And when Allah will say, “O Jesus, son of Mary, didst thou say to men, ‘Take me and my mother for two gods beside Allah?’”, he will answer, “Holy art Thou. I could never say that to which I had no right. If I had said it, Thou wouldst have surely known it. Thou knowest what is in my mind, and I know not what is in Thy mind. It is only Thou Who art the Knower of hidden things.
Godhood of Jesus (PBUH) has been refuted in a similar, indirect fashion in the following verse.
[5: 76] The Messiah, son of Mary, was only a Messenger; surely, Messengers like unto him had indeed passed away before him. And his mother was a truthful woman. They both used to eat food. See how We explain the Signs for their good, and see how they are turned away.
Thrown in apparently casually in the above verse is the fact that Jesus and Mary (Peace be upon them) both used to eat food. The argument seems to be that Jesus needed food to live and anyone dependent on material things for his or her life cannot be co-equal to God; as God, according to most of the scriptures, does not need sustenance.
Then, if we think a bit more, there is another angle to this statement: he (Jesus) needed to excrete the product of his activity of eating. Now here’s another interesting observation that can be made. Have you seen mammals defecate? A lot of them visibly look in trouble during the process/act and some of them, especially the canine and the feline and of course humans try to make sure that they are not seen close to what they have produced. Quite embarrassing! And how can one who embarrasses himself at least once a day be co-equal to God? The claim of Jesus being coeternal can also be refuted from the dependence on food and its processing angle.
Now I invite you to ponder over the last sentence in the translation of the verse: See how We explain the Signs for their good, and see how they are turned away.
While writing the above (the first time) I remembered the phrase “Dhaofattalib wal matloob” (Weak indeed are both the seeker and the sought.) That, in my opinion, describes the plight of Trinitarians and of Jesus (PBUH) at their hands. I searched for it and here is the verse: [22:74]
O men, a similitude is set forth, so listen to it. Surely, those on whom you call instead of Allah cannot create even a fly, though they combine together for the purpose. And if the fly should snatch away anything from them, they cannot recover it therefrom. Weak indeed are both the seeker and the sought.
In the Name of Allah the Most gracious Ever Merciful
Dear Shah Sb,
Aasalamalykum.
FAZL-e-KHUDA ka sayaa tum pay rahay hamaisha
Har din charahe MUBARAK, har raat BAKHAIR guzray
Well done by posting. May Almighty Allah bless you and your family members a happy, healthy and wealthy long life. Ameen
Identity of indiscernibles
Unfortunately for humanity at large, sometimes Christian apologists allege that Jesus is co-eternal and co-equal with God the Father, to create the hocus pocus of Trinity.
To refute that we need this simple but well established philosophical principle:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Identity_of_indiscernibles
In the Name of Allah the Most Gracious Ever Merciful
Dear Robert Adam, Thank you for participation in this vital debate and admitting that Jesus pbuh never asked to worship him….
It was not exclusive statement for Jesus and by Jesus, “I am the way…”Every prophet raise the same voice and it is true for Every prophet of God, at the time of Adam he was the way at the time of Moses he was the only way at the time of Jesus he was only the way at the time of Holy Prophet Mohammad, he was the only way to enter into the kingdom of God so on and so forth as God does not send his prophets to be rejected. That does not make Jesus pbuh a God’s Head.
Zarif Ahmad
The belief in one God,Unitarianism ( Touheed ) is logically very strong because it gathers all the humans to a unity on a one Center Point, God.One and only all-Mighty God.All Humanity have one focal point because all are united, Looking to one center, Seeking Message from One Authority Obeying one Authority so receiving same message of Unity of all Human-being.Oneness of God reflects a Unity of all human-being and equality of all human-being. All the Prophets including Jesus Worshiped one God and Logically if One Him-self Worship One and Only God How can He say to Others to adopt Trinity. No never He never can say Logically What He him-self not doing that. It will be a blame on one The Jesus and that is not true. The Prophet before and After Jesus all believe in Unity of God, Oneness of God.Even He him-self having belief in One god then How can He said his Followers to adopt Trinity. If One even not Believe in any Holly book but He have a common sense then He can easily understand these logic.