The Prohibition of Excess in Religion and the Divinity of Jesus

After relating the doubts of the Jews and their responses in the previous verses, the Qur’an turned to refuting the doubts of the Christians: First, it restrained the People of the Book from excess (ghuluww) in their religion and called them to avoid any false speech about God and the necessity of adhering to truth in beliefs: “O People of the Book! Do not exceed in your religion and do not say about God except the truth”.(105) Then, to refute the excessive notion of the Christians who considered Jesus one of the three gods and to show the path of truth, it called him the son of Mary and the messenger of God who was born by His will without a father. He is a word from God given to his mother and a spirit from God: “The Messiah, Jesus son of Mary, was only an apostle of God, and His Word that He cast toward Mary and a Spirit from Him” (innamā l-masīḥ ʿĪsā ibn Maryam rasūl allāh wa kalimatuh alqāhā ilā Maryam wa rūḥ minh).

It should be noted that in the Qur’an, the name of Jesus is always mentioned with the description “son of Mary” (ibn Maryam), but in the case of other prophets, this is generally not the case; that is, their own names are mentioned. This mention can be to combat the extremist thought of Christians so that no one considers him the son of God.

Reminder: The expression “do not say about God” (lā taqūlū ʿalā allāh) suggests fabrication, because deceptive speech about any person is speech against them, and its clear example is attributing falsehood to them.