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By Robert M. Bowman Jr.
[The first four installments of this series are available at Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4.]
Islam is the second-largest religion in the world, recently exceeding two billion members worldwide. Its founder, Muhammad (ca. AD 570–632), delivered numerous recitations he said were messages from God in his native Arabic transmitted word for word after being commanded by the angel Gabriel in 610 to proclaim these messages. Those messages were compiled after his death in a book known as the Qur’an (which means recitations).
Arabia during Muhammad’s early years was predominantly polytheistic, worshiping numerous gods represented by manmade idols. However, other religions had a presence. There were settlements of Jews along the western coast of Arabia. The Christian representation consisted mainly of a mix of sects that had become isolated from the mainstream Christian movement, including Nestorians, Monophysites, and Ebionites. Muhammad’s first wife, Khadija, had a cousin named Waraqah who may have been affiliated with one of these Christian-based sects, though which one is unknown. Waraqah is sometimes described as a hanif, an advocate of an Arabic monotheism that traced its origins to Abraham through his first son Ishmael. The hanifs reportedly rejected idols and regarded Allah, an Arab deity not represented by an idol, as the true God. Traditionally, Muhammad himself has been considered as a hanif.
There is some uncertainty about Muhammad’s religious roots, but what we can tell from the Qur’an is that he fit the profile of the hanifs and that he was familiar with Judaism and Christianity but not with the Bible as such. Even granting the sincerity of his claim to have encountered Gabriel, it is evident that Muhammad’s revelatory messages were based on ideas and stories already circulating in his culture. Undoubtedly, the idea of one true God who had created the world, who prohibited all idolatry, and who commanded righteous behavior originated from the Abrahamic religious traditions. Muhammad’s monotheism was obviously superior to Arabic polytheism, but his monotheism came secondhand and was shaped by Jewish and Christian notions that he picked up in his environment.
The Qur’an emphasizes the greatness, mercy, power, and authority of Allah, especially through the use of names such as “the Most Merciful.” The foundational belief about Allah is his oneness (in Arabic, tawhid). In Islamic reflection on the teaching of the Qur’an, everything else that can be known about God follows logically from his oneness. Allah is the sole Creator and Ruler of the world, self-existent, omnipotent, omniscient, and totally unlike anything else. These descriptions are similar to the classical Christian conception of God but are radically understood in Islam based on a rigorous interpretation of tawhid. God does not reveal himself through visible or direct manifestations but instead communicates indirectly through angels and prophets.
The emphasis on the otherness of Allah results in a view of God as predominantly if not exclusively transcendent, arguably at the expense of his immanence (his nearness or presence in the world). In the early centuries of Islam, Muslim thinkers vigorously debated such issues as whether one could speak of attributes of Allah or whether the Qur’an was eternal. People on both sides of these arguments insisted that tawhid required acceptance of their position.
Muslims consider both the Trinity and the incarnation as incompatible with God’s oneness and therefore as blasphemous—indeed, as committing the one unforgivable sin, that of associating Allah with anything else (called shirk). Yet the debates over the implications of tawhid suggest that Muslim theological objections to the Christian doctrines are not sound, as Nabeel Qureshi, a devout Muslim who eventually converted to Christianity, came to realize.[1]
Islam does get a number of things right about Jesus. The Qur’an affirms that Jesus was born of a virgin (3:47) and that he performed miracles (5:110). The Qur’an acknowledges that Jesus was unqualifiedly righteous, apparently meaning sinless (19:19, 30–31). Christians certainly agree that he was a prophet (19:30, cf. Matt. 13:57; Mark 6:4; Luke 4:24; John 4:44; Acts 3:22–26), although we would say he was much more than a prophet. Unfortunately, the Qur’an denies that Jesus was more than a messenger of God and even that he was the most important (4:171; 5:75). According to the Qur’an, Jesus claimed only to be “a servant of Allah” (19:30). It vehemently denounces the idea that Jesus was God’s Son (4:171; 6:101; 19:35). Finally, it denies that Jesus died on the cross (4:157–58). On that basis, of course, Muslims deny that Jesus atoned for our sins or that he rose from the dead. The problem here is that Jesus’ death by crucifixion is a well-established historical fact.[2]
Muslim rejection of basic Christian doctrine appears to stem largely from misunderstandings. For example, since the objections in the Qur’an to Jesus being God’s “son” come in the context of his human birth from Mary, those objections assume that the idea involves God physically procreating someone. At one point it even asks rhetorically, “How can He have a son when He hath no consort?” (6:101). According to Muslim apologist Shabir Ally, since “God is not a physical being,” he does not have sons or daughters.[3] Of course, Christianity teaches that Christ has been the Son of God from eternity past and that this title expresses his likeness and relationship to God, not a physical origin. Related to this mistake is the fact that the Qur’an appears to understand the three members of the Trinity to be Allah, Jesus, and Mary. Christians need only assure Muslims that Christianity does not teach these false ideas.
Muslims sometimes misunderstand the doctrine of the incarnation—that Jesus is God incarnate—to teach that Jesus is the Father. Ally, for example, argues from Matthew 23:9 that Jesus “is not the Father.”[4] Quite so—but orthodox Christians agree.
One insurmountable problem for the Muslim doctrine is that all four Gospels give repeated testimony in various ways that Jesus considered himself God’s “Son” and taught his disciples to think of God as their Father. According to Ally, all of the biblical passages in which Jesus is called the “Son” of God, or where he calls God “Father,” were the result of changes in the biblical text.[5] Frankly, this claim has no credibility whatsoever. Even if we omit the few places in the New Testament where some manuscripts omit the title “Son of God” (e.g., Mark 1:1), there are still hundreds of places where the text uniformly calls Jesus the Son or refers to God as the Father. In fact, every book of the New Testament except the very short epistle of 3 John refers to the Father, and 19 of the 27 New Testament writings explicitly refer to Jesus as God’s “Son” (all of the exceptions are short epistles). This evidence cannot be explained away by appealing to the possibility of mistakes in the copies (or by blaming Paul for introducing the idea of Jesus as God’s Son into Christianity, as some Muslims do).
The New Testament teaches that Jesus Christ is worthy of all divine honors including worship (e.g., Matt. 28:17–19; Luke 24:50–51; John 5:23; Phil. 2:10–11; 2 Tim. 4:18; Heb. 1:6; 1 Peter 3:14–16; 2 Peter 3:18; Rev. 5:14). Muslims are right in saying that no creature should be associated with God in religious honors. However, the New Testament explains that Jesus is not merely a creature, but is the eternal, divine Son who humbled himself to share in our humanity to redeem us by his death (Phil. 2:5–8). This teaching, far from detracting from the glory due to God, magnifies God’s glory (Phil. 2:9–11). As Christians, we should help Muslims see that we honor Jesus in this way because doing so honors God.
Notes
[1] Nabeel Qureshi, No God but One: Allah or Jesus? A Former Muslim Investigates the Evidence for Islam and Christianity (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2016), Part 2.
[2] In addition to Qureshi’s book, see James A. Beverley and Craig A. Evans, Getting Jesus Right: How Muslims Get Jesus and Islam Wrong (Lagoon City, ON: Castle Quay Books, 2015); James K. Walker, What the Qur’an Really Teaches About Jesus: Prophet of Allah or Savior of the World? (Eugene, OR: Harvest House, 2018).
[3] Shabir Ally, Is Jesus God? The Bible Says No (Toronto: Al-Attique Publishers, 1997), 33.
[4] Ally, Is Jesus God? The Bible Says No, 32.
[5] Ally, Is Jesus God? The Bible Says No, 38.
— Robert M. Bowman Jr. is the president of the Institute for Religious Research (IRR.org). He holds M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in biblical studies from Fuller Theological Seminary and South Africa Theological Seminary. Dr. Bowman has lectured extensively at Biola University and New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary on apologetics, biblical studies, religion, and theology. Rob is the author or co-author of 18 books, including (with J. Ed Komoszewski) The Incarnate Christ and His Critics: A Biblical Defense (Kregel, 2024), which discusses the subject of this series in comprehensive detail.
Image by Muhammet Fatih KARAKOÇ from Pixabay
