The Incompatibility of Faith with Trinity Worship

After calling the People of the Book to avoid excess in religion and abandon false statements, it asks Christians to believe in the One God and His messengers; then it expresses the incompatibility of true faith with the Trinity (tathlīth) and considers their good and happiness to lie in avoiding the doctrine of the Trinity: “So have faith in God and His messengers, and do not say, ‘[God is] a Trinity.’ Relinquish [such a creed]! That is better for you” (4:171). Faith in the One God and His messengers means declaring the One Creator free from having a spouse and child, and not attributing a status higher than messengership (risāla) to His sent ones.

Negligence and shortcoming in the knowledge of the Most Sacred Divine Essence (dhāt aqdas ilāhī) and extremism and excess regarding the prophets and elevating their status prepared the ground for the belief in Trinity; thus a group of Christians considered “God,” “Christ,” and “the Holy Spirit” as three gods!

Based on some verses, another group turned to a different Trinity and accepted the divinity of “God,” “Mary,” and “Christ.” Therefore, God will ask Jesus on the Day of Resurrection whether he told people to take him and his mother as gods besides God: “And when God will say, ‘O Jesus son of Mary! Was it you who said to the people, ‘Take me and my mother for gods besides God’?” (5:116). In this verse, Trinity worship is not explicitly mentioned, but by adding “God” to the dual form “two gods” (ilāhayn), it can be derived.

The verse under exegesis considers every form of Trinity to be false. Trinity in any form is impossible:

a. God is a universal matter (amr jāmiʿī) that has three individuals, and God, the Holy Spirit, and Jesus are instances of it; like contingent essences (māhiyyāt imkānī).

b. God is a composite reality made up of three parts: God = sharing of part and whole in name - the Holy Spirit; Jesus.

c. Each of the Father (ab), Son (ibn), and Holy Spirit are independent gods; that is, neither universal (jāmiʿ) nor composite (majmūʿ), but collective (jamīʿ), meaning each independently.

It should be noted that this verse concerns the negation of the doctrine of the Trinity by Christians; but the universal nature of the Qur’an and the scope of the argument of the matter encompasses all forms of Trinitarianism (tathlīth) and dualism (tathniya),(109) because with the establishment of monotheism (tawḥīd), everything else is negated: “God is but the One God. He is far too immaculate to have any son.”

Note: Monotheism (tawḥīd) is in accordance with human nature (fiṭra), consistent with rational proof (burhān), and harmonious with the Qur’an. The appearance of any form of polytheism (shirk), whether dualism, Trinity, or other forms of attributing equals (nidd)(110) to the God who has no equal is such that this view would be foolish.