The Muslims here fail to see beyond what the Quran says. But looking at the Quran itself, there are beautiful Names for Jesus that no other Islamic Prophets had. It does require for some deep thoughts upon why Allah ever mention such high regarded titles to Jesus Christ. Listed are below for Muslims to ponder.
The important thing here is to look not in your own understanding.
Human minds are very limited to comprehend the vastness of the Universe. What more the Mighty Trinity! I won't be saying this if I have not witnessed thousands of Muslims accept Christ and convert as passionate Christ-Loving christians! I am one of them! So its true experience that I say the Muslims always attack Christianity, not Jesus Christ. To them Christ is a great prophet but the Muslims fail to see Christ beyond their doctrine. A fault lies in them lacking in analysis of their own doctrine to see sound proof of Christ himself mentioned in them.
The reason behind their anger towards Christianity is their "assuming Christians amended the Bible, and made Jesus "God". They cannot digest the idea that Christ is the Living God mentioned from the Old Testament and in their Quran as the MESSIAH. Only minds that are open and touched by the Holy Spirit can "ACCEPT" and understand the faith of billions of Christians on earth today! We have the Holy Spirit, to enable our minds to grasp the fact of trinity, along with many ex-muslims who converted to Christianity. But the lost shall remain lost only and unless Christ wants to touch them to open their minds.
This below is a little long, but relax and read it.
1. JESUS, THE MESSIAH or
ISA AL MASIHI
Jesus alone is called the
Messiah in the Quran. No other prophet, patriarch or priest is given this title. In Arabic it is simply
al-Masih. The Quran awards this title to Jesus on eleven separate occasions, including in
Sura 4:171, where a denial of Jesus’ divinity is also made. However, the Quran makes no attempt to define the title. So, in order to find the meaning of the term, one has to go to the Jewish and Christian scriptures to find its meaning. When we look there we find that the expressions
Messiah and
Son of God were synonymous!
- Over 300 Old Testament prophecies speak of the coming Messiah ("Christ") and describe him as a man that stands above all other men, including the other messengers of God, and that he would have a regality, majesty, splendor and excellence above all other men. Indeed, he would have divine attributes. Jewish believers in Jesus used the term Messiah and Son of God interchangeably. For example, Peter, one of the first Jewish followers of Jesus said, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God (Matthew 16:16)." Nathaniel (John 1:49), Mark (Mark 1:1), and Martha (John 11:27) are examples of others who used the terms Messiah and Son of God interchangeably. Caiaphas, the Jewish High Priest also used the terms Messiah and Son of God together. When Jesus was on trial, Caiaphas asked Jesus, "I adjure you, by the living God, tell us if you are the Messiah, the Son of God (Matthew 26:63)."
- Even demons recognized him in this way. They knew him from all eternity as the eternal Son from the Father and recognized him in human form when he commanded them with authority to depart: "And demons also came out of many, crying, 'You are the Son of God!' But he rebuked them, and would not allow them to speak, because they knew that he was the Messiah (Luke 4:41)."
Thus, by saying that Jesus is the Messiah, the Quran has duly given Jesus a title which implies that he is the very person that the Quran is otherwise at such pains to deny—the
Son of God himself.
2.
JESUS, THE WORD OF GOD -
KALIMATULLAH or KALIMATIM-MINHU
In
Sura 4:171, Jesus is called, “His Word.” In
Sura 3:45 the Quran states that the angels, when announcing the unique conception of Jesus to Mary, told her that Allah was giving her good tidings “of a Word from him.” The expression here used, in the original Arabic, is
kalimatim-minhu. Broken up, it means
kalmia (word), min (from), hu (him). Note this—Jesus is the only human being who ever lived who is called a
Word from God. The same title is applied to him in the Christian Bible:
He is clad in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is the Word of God.(
Revelation 19:13).
Once again Jesus is given a title in the Quran which the Bible gives him as well. Like the Messiah, this is a very distinctive and remarkable title. It is important to emphasize two specific features of this title. Jesus himself, in his actual person, is the Word. Secondly, the source of this Word is God. Neither book says that he
delivered the word of God as other prophets did, or that he was
learned in it, or that he
embodied and
represented it. He is expressly declared to
be a Word from God, or THE Word of God. Other prophets received the messages of God, but Jesus, in a unique way, is himself the message of God to the world!
There is obviously something about the person of Jesus himself that makes him the Word of God in a way no other man has ever been or ever will be. Key to understanding the title is the emphasis of deity as its source. The Word is from God. He himself is the communication and revelation of God to men. He does not merely bring the word of God, he
is the Word of God.
We have to turn to the Bible to find the ultimate meaning of the title in view of the fact that the Quran attributes it to Jesus without explanation. We go to the very beginning of John’s gospel where this subject is treated in more detail:
In the beginning was the Word. And the Word was with God. And the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him and without him was not anything made that was made (
John 1:1-2).
When we amplify or paraphrase these words we get a clear picture of the meaning of the title. In the beginning, before God ever began to create, the Word already existed. Far from being part of the created order, the Word was in the realm of God and indeed the very nature of the Word was God. When God first began to fashion the created order, the Word already existed in the divine order. He himself was not created but all other things were created by God through him as agent. Because he alone is the Word of God, and is therefore the ultimate means of communication between God and his creatures, nothing was created without being created by him.
But why is Jesus the Word of God? In what way was Jesus uniquely the communication of God in himself to mankind? We go a bit further down the first page of John’s gospel and find these words:
And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth (
John 1:14).
The title signifies two unique things about Jesus, and distinguish him from all other prophets of God:
- Every word of Jesus was the word of God. All the prophets who went before him spoke the Word of God when moved by the Holy Spirit, but in general conversation their speech was entirely their own. Muslims are taught to distinguish between the Quran—which Muhammad received and conveyed as the word of God—and his own teachings which are recorded in the Hadith as inspirational but not divine. Jesus, however, at all times spoke the word of God, whether in public preaching or in private conversation. He confirmed this on various occasions, such as:
I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me has given me a commandment—what to say and what to speak. And I know that his commandment is eternal life. What I say, therefore, I say as the Father has told me (
John 12:49-50).
The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works (
John 14:10).
- Jesus himself is God's final message to mankind. Being the Word of God, Jesus himself is the final and complete revelation of God to the human race. The following text expresses this perfectly:
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together (
Colossians 1:15-19).
Jesus himself is the Word of God. There is no independence, therefore, between God and His Word. In human form Jesus embodied the divine being. He was not a created messenger. He is, and for all eternity will be, the eternal Word of God.
Sura 4:171 tells Christians not to exaggerate in their religion and to say nothing of Allah but the truth. Yet, in view of these unique titles we are considering, it is hard to see where the exaggeration is. The text of the Quran denies the deity of Christ, yet, in the titles it applies to him, it simply affirms the very thing it takes such pains to deny. We have already seen that the titles Messiah and Son of God are synonymous. The title Word of God is also interchangeable with the title Son of God. If anything, this title is more emphatic and suggestive of deity as it implies no submission on the part of the Word of God as the expression Son to Father does.
3.
JESUS, AS THE SPIRIT OF GOD - RUH ALLAH
In Islam Jesus is given the title,
Ruhullah, meaning “Spirit of God.” It comes from the same text,
Sura 4:171, where Jesus is called
wa-ruhun-minhu, “a spirit from him.” The same structure is used as for the Word of God:
ruh (spirit),
min (from),
hu (him). In this case we do find some evidence in the Quran that helps us to define the title. The expression occurs again here:
These are those in whose hearts he has inscribed faith, and strengthened them with a spirit from himself (Sura 58:22).
These are same words used as in
Sura 4:171, ruhun-minhu, “a spirit from him.” Nowhere else in the Quran does this expression occur. In his commentary on the Quran, Yusuf Ali says that the “phrase used is stronger” than that for the Holy Spirit (
Ruhul-Quds) in the Quran who is identified in Islam as the Angel Gabriel. Ali implies that this Spirit of God is greater than the mighty angel and says it is, “the divine spirit which we can no more define adequately than we can define in human language the nature and attributes of God.”
The Muslim commentator has, unintentionally but very impressively, given a precise definition of the Holy Spirit as Christians know him in the Bible. He is the “divine spirit” who cannot be defined in human language with terminology other than that used for God himself. Yet the Quran, in the only other place where this expression occurs, applies this same divine title to Jesus!
So Muslims have a third title in
Sura 4:171—Spirit of God—which attributes divine features to Jesus just as the titles Messiah and Word of God do. Significantly they are synonymous with titles used in the Bible for Jesus to further express his profile towards mankind as the eternal Son from the Father.
The Quran, in the very passage (Sura 4:171)—which contains a denial of the deity of Jesus (“Do not say Trinity! God is only one God. Far be it from his glory to have a son.”
—paradoxically attributes three titles to him which affirm his deity! He is the Anointed Son of God/Messiah; he is the divine Word of God, and he is a Spirit coming from God. Jesus was not just another prophet called to office at an appropriate point in time. He is the message of God, he came from God, his very spirit is the Spirit of God.
In fact, not only does the Quran affirm the deity of Jesus, it affirms the Christian understanding of the Trinity by its use of the expression ruhun-minhu! Yusuf Ali freely concedes that this is no created spirit of which the book teaches but the divine spirit, which comes from God, and must be defined in the same terms as God. Twice the Quran uses the expression, once for Jesus Christ, and once for the Spirit which comes from God (and strengthens believers), and must be defined in the same terms as God. A closer definition of the Trinity you could hardly hope to find.
Sura 58:22 defines the Spirit of God in terms synonymous with those applied to the Holy Spirit in the Bible and
Sura 4:171 expressly nominates Jesus in the same terms.
