The Meaning of “Taking as God”

Taking Jesus and Mary as gods: “… Take me and my mother for gods …”, means submitting before them, considering them independent in their authority, and obeying their commands. The explanation is that “taking as god or taking as lord” (ittikhādh ilāh or ittikhādh rabb) is different from “declaring someone to be god or lord”: “taking as god” (ittikhādh ilāh) is the same as divine submission (khuḍūʿ ulūhī) before a particular thing or person, in such a way that that person or thing is considered a source of independent effect and one submits before it in the form of servitude (ʿubūdiyya). Therefore, if someone practically submits to another and is completely obedient to them, they have taken them as their lord or god, just as He says about those who engage in unthinking obedience and blind imitation (taqlīd) of scribes and monks: “They have taken their scribes and their monks as lords besides God, and also Christ, Mary’s son” (293) and about those inclined to desires who submit to their own souls He says: “Have you seen him who has taken his desire to be his god.”(294) This person knowingly and deliberately commits sin, because in every sin a human being makes the desire of their soul their god, whether they confess to it or not. But declaring someone or something to be a god or a lord means believing that that person or thing has a formative influence (taʾthīr takwīnī) in the external world and is not specific to the one who takes them as such.

Note: In the Qur’an, nothing other than the title “taking as god” (ittikhādh ilāh) has been mentioned for Mary; but regarding Jesus, the title of “divinity” (ulūhiyya) has also been mentioned: “They are certainly faithless who say, ‘God is the Messiah’.”(295)