and claim that “There is one God, Allah, and Muhammad is his prophet.” Anything in addition to Allah in this sense is to commit the greatest of all crimes in Islam, which is called shirk. Shirk is understood this way by Muslims because of passages such as Sura 4:48, which reads, “Surely Allah does not forgive that anything should be associated with Him, and forgives what is besides that to whomsoever He pleases; and whoever associates anything with Allah, he devises indeed a great sin.”[1] In this passage then, readers can conclude that the definition of shirk is anything associated with Allah, this is what makes it the greatest sin of all.
On the contrary, in Christianity, God is three persons in one being. In Matthew 28:18-20, Jesus tells His Disciples, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.[2] Much confusion came from a misunderstanding or a deliberate manipulation of the doctrine of the Trinity, including confusion in Islam. This paper will seek to look at both doctrines, Tawhid and the Trinity, and hopefully the reader himself will be able to come to the correct conclusion before the final conclusion of which of these doctrines describing God is true.
Tawhid versus Trinity: A Comparison and Analysis
The Orthodox Christian Understanding
First, let’s summarize the biblical Christian understanding of the doctrine of the Trinity. It seems that a great place to start would be at the Shema, which is found in Deuteronomy chapter six, verse four, “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.”[3] The question seems to bewilder Muslims about the monotheistic nature of God from the Christian perspective. The fact is, Christians are monotheistic. This verse, Deuteronomy 6:4, is in the Christian Bible. But the thing is, there is a lot more biblical material until we reach the end of this authoritative collection of books. This collection of books that we call the Bible, brings us deeper into an understanding of who God is, and what He is like.
Having established biblically that God is one in the Christian faith, it is not the only way to describe Him. This is not where we cease. For instance, we can also biblically describe God as love. First John chapter four, verses seven and eight reveal this to us: “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.”[4] We can further biblically describe God as spirit as Jesus does in John chapter four… “God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.”[5] The point here is to show the reader that a discussion of God is obviously a vast topic and that God can be described further than simply “one.” We can ascribe things to God, but it seems that the issue in Islam is that we cannot ascribe another being to God. This is not what is happening. Christians do not associate another being to God, because as mentioned, God is one.
It seems that a troubling area for many people in discussing the doctrine of the Trinity is logic. For instance, some Muslims wonder how three people can be one person, or how one being can be three beings, but this is not what Christians are saying. Trinitarian believers would also disagree with these statements and call them logical fallacies.
William Lane Craig, founder of Reasonable Faith, has something very interesting to say about this:
The doctrine of the Trinity is not the doctrine that three Gods are somehow one God. That would be clearly self-contradictory – to say there are three Gods, and these are one God. Neither is it the claim that there are three persons who are somehow one person. That, again, would be self-contradictory – to assert that there are three persons who are all one person. But the doctrine of the Trinity does not assert that there are three Gods that are one God or three persons that are one person, but it asserts that there is one God who is tri-personal. It is one God who is three persons, or, to put it another way, there is one God who has three centers of self-consciousness: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.[6]
So, just like an individual person is one being with one center of self-consciousness, God is one being with three centers of self-consciousness. This is not the same as “multiple personality disorder, as some might object,” for several reasons. For starters, multiple-personality disorder isn’t a real disorder. Psychologists and Medical Doctors by the droves have come to this conclusion. For instance, Allen J Frances M.D., writes in a Psychology Today article: “Why does MPD [Multiple-Personality Disorder] keep making its periodic comebacks, despite not being a verifiable or clinically useful mental disorder? My best guess is that the labeling of alters offers an appealing and dramatic metaphor, an idiom of distress.”[7] When trying to say that Christians are saying that God has a multiple-personality disorder, it would be like saying that God has a super hero complex, or something to that nature. The issue here is that it is a (multiple) categorical error because God is not a mere human, and secondly, because humans beings cannot even have a multiple-personality disorder.
God is one being with three centers of self-consciousness. He is three in persons and one in essence. The Bible teaches this. For instance, we discussed the Shema, showing that in the Bible, there is only one God, but one can also see biblically, that God exists in three persons. Let’s look at John chapter ten, verses 30-33. Jesus replies, “‘I and the Father are one.’ The Jews picked up stones again to stone him. Jesus answered them, ‘I have shown you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you going to stone me?’ The Jews answered him, ‘It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God.’”[8]
The Jews at this time recognized the fact that if Jesus were not who He said He was, this would indeed be blasphemy. The problem is that they were blind to see the truth of who He was through His miracles.[9] The point is that the Jews picked up stones to stone Him because He was calling Himself God. The Jews clearly recognized this, which is why they wanted to stone Him for blasphemy. The question is, why wouldn’t we recognize today that Jesus called Himself God? Perhaps it is because of blindness in our day as well.
The Trinity is one God in three persons. Since most Christians reading this likely assume already that the Father is God, and many places in the Bible discuss the Father as God,[10] one will see here that Jesus is God, and that the Holy Spirit is God. The whole idea here is to show through the Shema, that yes, there is one God, and through these other verses that He exists in three persons.
Continuing on our track that Jesus is God from the Bible, we could look at a number of other verses, but since we just looked at one, we will observe another one before moving on.
In chapter one in the book of Revelation, verse eight reads, “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”[11] If a person were to ask exactly who the “Alpha and the Omega” is referring to, again, likely he would say that it is referring to God, as in God the Father.
Further along in the same chapter, one would find John writing this: “When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, ‘Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades.’”[12] The “first and the last” here is a reference to the Alpha and the Omega, which is the first and the last letter of the Greek alphabet. In other words, Jesus is saying here that He is God. We could also have a large discussion on what is one of the most blatant passages in scripture that reveal the deity of Jesus which is John 1:1-3, 14, but at this point, we should move to the person of the Holy Spirit.
In the book of Acts, chapter five, verses one through six, Dr. Luke records what took place:
But a man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property, and with his wife’s knowledge he kept back for himself some of the proceeds and brought only a part of it and laid it at the apostles’ feet. But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land? While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to man but to God.” When Ananias heard these words, he fell down and breathed his last. And great fear came upon all who heard of it. The young men rose and wrapped him up and carried him out and buried him.[13]
In this passage, Peter, who is not only an early Christian, but also an Apostle of Christ, calls the Holy Spirit “God.” Why wouldn’t some people want to call what the early church calls God? Why would people not want to describe God the way the Early Church does? Perhaps it is because those who do not want to acknowledge the Trinity are so far removed from the early church that it is an extreme distinction from the early church.
Another passage worthy of discussion here is found in the Gospel of Mark, chapter one. The Trinity is in full view here as it is in Matthew 28:19: “In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.’”[14] From this, one can clearly see what was going through the mind of the ancient writer. The word, Trinity, was not yet invented, but the truth of the Trinity is clearly eternal. Similarly, the word, calculus, was not yet invented, and although calculus is often described as being invented by Leibniz or Newton, the fact is that it was not invented, but discovered.[15]
With all of these things in mind, it seems fair to assume that we can move on to the doctrine of Tawhid.
The Islamic Understanding of Tawhid
“Allahu Akbar!” If this is a final statement for God to be “greater,” then it seems that God must be the greatest. But the greatest what? Or the greatest at what? In Christianity, it is clear who God is because of how the Bible describes Him, as shown above. On the contrary, Reza Aslan, a popular Muslim author, writes, “Tawhid means that God is Oneness. God is Unity; wholly indivisible, entirely unique, and utterly indefinable.”[16] What is interesting about this sentence is that it is self-refuting. If Allah is utterly indefinable, why is there so much material written, including the one just cited, about Tawhid and Allah in general? Saying that God is oneness and unity, etc., is to describe God which ultimately (but not fully), defines God.
Aslan continues:
Obviously, human beings have no choice but to speak of God in human language, through human symbols and metaphors. Therefore, one can refer to God’s attributes as embodying “Goodness” or “Being” in the classical philosophical sense, but only with the recognition that these are meaningless terms when applied to God, who is neither substance nor accident. Indeed, tawhid suggests that God is beyond any description, beyond any human knowledge.
If “Goodness” and “Being” are meaningless terms when applied to God, then how can one possibly use them to refer to God’s attributes as Aslan does in his own book? Aslan should also read that last sentence again, but slowly. He is literally describing God as indescribable, which is a description!
It is not clear then, the things about Allah according to Islam, simply because it seems that no human words can describe him. It is interesting however, that “Allahu Akbar” (god is greater), is uttered at several points in the life of most Muslims. This exclamation recognizes that God is ultimately the Greatest Conceivable Being, and in order to have that title, this being must be a being where greater love cannot be found anywhere else. As discussed already, Christianity absolutely acknowledges that God is the greatest conceivable Being. He must be perfect in all his ways in order for him to be the greatest conceivable Being.
Allah’s love is not unconditional. But unconditional love is the greatest love. In the Quran, Allah is not described as a god of love, but in fact “most of the verses on love in the Quran speak to what Allah does not love.”[17]Gauss explains prior to this that the Quran only has 84 verses in the entire book that even discuss love.[18] This is very crucial for our discussion because it is hard to explain how Allah could love at all since there are no persons of the Trinity in Islam. For instance, Allah never “begot a Son.”
The Quran says in Sura 5:18 that, “The Jews and the Christians say: We are the sons of Allah and His beloved ones. Say: Why does He then chastise you for your faults? Nay, you are mortals from among those whom He has created, He forgives whom He pleases and chastises whom He pleases…”[19] So just as the Quran teaches the doctrine of Tawhid, Allah cannot have children either. But the question is, how could Allah be all-knowing without experience of love? This seems to cause a real problem for the doctrine of Tawhid. The problem is that Allah is alone in existence, and nothing can be associated with him, so then how does Allah have perfect love? If the greatest love is unconditional love, which is what our own existence and introspection teaches us, then how can Allah be “God” if he is limited in this?
What makes this all come full circle is that the doctrine of the Trinity answers this problem. The three Persons of the Trinity have always existed, and are therefore able to have love for one another from eternity to eternity. “The doctrine of the Trinity allows us to make sense of claims about God like ‘God loves perfectly’ in ways that the doctrine of Tawhid does not.”[20] John 1:1-2 says that “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.”[21] This teaches that Jesus existed with the Father before the beginning. This is why God can say, “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” because the three persons of the Trinity have always existed. It is also why Jesus can say, “The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand.”[22]Without the Doctrine of the Trinity, it is impossible to make sense of the love of God.
As far as what is true is concerned, Shabir Ally teaches that the Trinity has evolved historically, and says that the doctrine in Christianity began as Unitarian and went on to being binitarian and finally to Trinitarian.[23] But the problem is that if he were using the same criteria about Islam in this, then he would be saying that Tawhid is also an invented concept because it too, “evolved.”
From the Christian perspective, Islam evolved into a Unitarian theology simply because it came much later. Speaking on how to witness to Muslims who make the claim that they cannot read the Bible, Daniel Janosik (Director of Islamic Studies at Southern Evangelical Seminary) writes, “If Muslims should reply that they cannot read those books because they have been corrupted, then show them Sura 10:64, which reminds Muslims ‘There is no change in the word of God.’ Therefore if God can preserve the Quran, then he certainly can preserve the Bible as well.”[24] Since the Word of God is unchangeable according to the Quran, then this means that the Word of God has changed (which is contradictory), because Islam and the Quran teach that God is Unitarian.
On top of this, the problem is that the doctrine of the Trinity is not something that was invented, Christianity did not go from Unitarian, to binitarian, to Trinitarian historically; the fact is that the Trinity has existed forever. Again, the truth is not invented, but only discovered.
An Evaluation of the Islamic Expression through a Biblical Critique
Since this article is considerably laced with Bible verses critiquing the Islamic expression already, it seems reasonable to discuss a particular biblical passage in its context. In Galatians chapter one, verses six through nine, Paul writes the following:
I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.[25]
A lot of things can be said about this. For instance, Paul says that any message other than the one true Gospel is a false gospel, and a distortion of Christ. What is fascinating here is that He goes on to say that “even if we or an angel from heaven preaches contrary… let him be accursed.” Reza Aslan discusses the historical events that took place concerning Muhammad and explains how Muhammad was in a cave meditating and being crushed by an angel until he acquiesced to the demands of the angel.[26] The thing is, that this is contrary to what the Bible teaches (which was completed approximately six hundred years earlier), as we can see from the Galatians passage above, and it would literally be making a mockery of Islam, because Muhammad was supposedly visited by the angel Gabriel. The question is from Paul’s passage, why would the gospel ever change? If Christ died once for all,[27] then it is finished.[28] The work of God is finished in order to reconcile man to God.[29] This means that there not only ever is another gospel and that all others claiming to be a gospel are false, but also that another gospel will never need to exist. Jesus died for everyone, in all times, in all places.
So then from the beginning of Islam, it is built on something not only that is not needed, but is also completely contradictory to what the Bible teaches. Paul repeats himself in the Galatians passage because this was the ancient way to emphasize something. Today we use exclamation points and the like! The ancients liked to repeat themselves, likely because hearing the same information more than once would settle into the nest of one’s mind better. Perhaps this is why people repeat phone numbers on commercials so frequently. The point here is to observe what Paul repeats: “If anyone (even an angel) is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.” Under this light, Gabriel is accursed, Muhammad is accursed, and this would also mean that Islam is accursed as well.
Building Bridges with Islam Biblically
It seems that showing the lack of need for Islam would make a very beneficial conversation in witnessing to Muslims. The question to begin such a conversation would be along the lines of, “Why would God change His mind about the revelation from the Bible, in that “it is finished” and that now man has the only way to be reconciled to God? Why would God add a revelation to that what was already finished? This seems like as soon as one finishes painting his or her house, that they would start all over again. But why? The first “painting of the house” was complete in its task, and it was done well. Why paint the house again?
It seems here that there would be an argument against the case for the accuracy of the Bible, which would then lead us to show how the New Testament, in particular, was copied with “99.9 percent accuracy on anything of real concern.”[30] So the Bible was not changed through the child game of “telephone” because this would literally be impossible. The New Testament was copied at such a fast pace that the copies were being copied and the copies of copies, and the interesting thing is that we have over 25,000 manuscripts from the ancient times and we can compare these manuscripts together an see that through the ages of time, the Bible has not changed.[31]
Another direction of bridge building could be by showing that Jesus is divine, which may help a Muslim to be softened up to the idea of the Trinity. Jesus is more than just a prophet. He is more than just a messenger. Jesus claimed to be God, and lived a life proving to be such through His miracles. He did the things that God did in the Old Testament. God gave His people manna, Jesus fed the 4000 and 5000; God, through His prophet raised people from the dead, Jesus raised people from the dead; God healed the infertility of Sarah, Jesus healed many; God forgave sins, Jesus forgives sins. This is just a very short list, but such a list could consume the expanse of the surface of the earth, according to the Apostle John.[32]
It seems fallacious to compare something as complex as the Trinity to a physical object such as an egg, or perhaps water, and it is possible that these childlike analogies could trip someone up in their understanding the Christian faith, simply because the molds are different. It seems that these comparisons (like the three parts to an egg equal an egg. Or the three states of water, etc.) are fallacious because they are concrete objects. Therefore, perhaps an abstract object might be a better illustration. For example, the internet is one thing, yet is many things. “Explain to them that websites are all the “internet” yet they are their own website. When you are on Facebook, aren't you on the internet? When you are on Wikipedia, aren't you also on the internet? Yet in either case, you are also on one website.”[33] With this in mind and with the discussion material of this paper, one may perhaps see that the doctrine of the Trinity is not illogical, but is completely logical.
In conclusion, one may see that there is no need for Islam through an understanding of the transmission of the Bible and the work Jesus did on the cross according to the Bible. Though a Muslim might object to the death of Jesus or what happened with Him on the cross, we can know that Jesus did not, for instance, swoon on the cross because the gospels make it clear that Jesus was dead. We can know that the gospels are reliable because they would be impossible to change. Therefore, we can know that Jesus died on the cross for our sins. We can know that because Jesus did what He did and made the claims that He did about Himself, that what He said was true. Because Jesus is God, we can know that the Word of God is true. That Islam is not necessary, and is in fact, a false teaching. The Trinity, the doctrine as taught in the Bible is ultimately what tells the truth about God.
Written by Nace Howell through the grace of the Lord Jesus
© Nace Howell, 2022
Sources Cited
Shakir, M. H. editor. The Quran. Medford. MA: Perseus Digital Library, n. d.
The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016.
The Holy Bible: New International Version. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1984.
Craig, William Lane. Doctrine of the Trinity (part 1). Reasonable Faith (June 27, 2011): https://www.reasonablefaith.org/podcasts/defenders-podcast-series-2/s2-doctrine-of-god-trinity/doctrine-of-the-trinity-part-1.
Frances, M.D. Allen J. Multiple Personality: Mental Disorder, Myth, or Metaphor? Why multiple personality disorder fads come and go. Psychology Today (Jan 30, 2014): https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/saving-normal/201401/multiple-personality-mental-disorder-myth-or-metaphor.
Aslan, Reza. No god but God: the origins, evolution, and future of Islam. New York: Random House Inc., 2006.
James F. Gauss. Islam and Christianity: A Revealing Contrast. Newberry, FL: Bridge-Logos, 2009.
Richard Shumack, The Wisdom of Islam and the Foolishness of Christianity: A Christian Response to Nine Objections to Christianity by Muslim Philosophers (Sydney: Island View Publishing, 2014), 92.
Ally, Shabir. What is God Really Like: Tawhid or Trinity? Dr. Shabir Ally and Dr. Nabeel Qureshi Debate. YouTube: RZIM HQ: (Apr 8, 2015): https://youtu.be/FWpqqqZn7Kg?t=2680.
Janosik, Daniel. The Guide to Answering Islam. Cambridge, OH: Christian Publishing House, 2019.
Holden, Joseph M. and Norman Geisler, The Popular Handbook of Archaeology and the Bible. Eugene: Harvest House Publishers, 2013.
Nace Howell, “Answering Trinitarian Questions” Apologetics ad Evidence, (2016): https://apologeticsandevidence.blogspot.com/2016/01/untitled-article-on-trinity.html.
[1] M. H. Shakir, ed., The Quran (Medford, MA: Perseus Digital Library, n.d.) 4:48; Emphasis mine.
[2] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Mt 28:18–20; Emphasis mine.
[3] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Dt 6:4.
[4] Ibid, 1 Jn 4:7–8.
[5] The Holy Bible: New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1984), Jn 4:24.
[6] William Lane Craig, “Doctrine of the Trinity (part 1).” Reasonable Faith, June 27, 2011. https://www.reasonablefaith.org/podcasts/defenders-podcast-series-2/s2-doctrine-of-god-trinity/doctrine-of-the-trinity-part-1.
[7] Allen J Frances, M.D. “Multiple Personality: Mental Disorder, Myth, or Metaphor? Why multiple personality disorder fads come and go.” Psychology Today, Jan 30, 2014 https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/saving-normal/201401/multiple-personality-mental-disorder-myth-or-metaphor.
[8] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version, Jn 10:30–33.
[9] See John 10:38.
[10] See John 1:1; Mark 1; John 17 (where Jesus prays to the Father, not to Himself); Hebrews 1 (where God the Father calls God the Son, “God” et. al.
[11] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version, Re 1:8; Emphasis mine.
[12] Ibid, Re 1:17–18; Emphasis mine.
[13] Ibid, Ac 5:1–6; Emphasis mine.
[14] Ibid, Mk 1:9–11; Emphasis mine.
[15] Truth is never invented, but only discovered.
[16] Reza Aslan, No god but God: the origins, evolution, and future of Islam (New York: Random House Inc. 2006), 150; Emphasis mine.
[17] James F. Gauss, Islam and Christianity: A Revealing Contrast (Newberry, FL: Bridge-Logos, 2009), 156.
[18] Ibid, 155.
[19] M. H. Shakir, ed., The Quran, 5:18.
[20] Richard Shumack, The Wisdom of Islam and the Foolishness of Christianity: A Christian Response to Nine Objections to Christianity by Muslim Philosophers (Sydney: Island View Publishing, 2014), 92.
[21] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version, Jn 1:1–2.
[22] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version, Jn 3:35.
[23] Shabir Ally, What is God Really Like: Tawhid or Trinity? Dr. Shabir Ally and Dr. Nabeel Qureshi Debate. YouTube: RZIM HQ: Apr 8, 2015. https://youtu.be/FWpqqqZn7Kg?t=2680.
[24] Daniel Janosik, The Guide to Answering Islam (Cambridge, OH: Christian Publishing House, 2019), 51; Emphasis mine.
[25] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version, Ga 1:6–9.
[26] [26] Reza Aslan, No god but God: the origins, evolution, and future of Islam (New York: Random House Inc. 2006), 34-35.
[27] See Hebrews 10:10.
[28] See John 19:30.
[30] Joseph M. Holden and Norman Geisler, The Popular Handbook of Archaeology and the Bible (Eugene: Harvest House Publishers, 2013), 127.
[31] Ibid, 129.
[32] See John 21:25.
[33] Nace Howell, “Answering Trinitarian Questions” Apologetics ad Evidence, 2016. https://apologeticsandevidence.blogspot.com/2016/01/untitled-article-on-trinity.html.
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