Proofs of Monotheism (Adillat al-Tawḥīd)

The words of Jesus which are also accepted by Christians, in which he admonishes the Children of Israel to worship God who is my Lord and your Lord: “But the Messiah said, ‘O Children of Israel, worship God, my Lord and your Lord’” (wa qāla l-Masīḥu yā banī Isrāʾīla ʿbudū Allāha rabbī wa rabbakum), is his confession of his own servitude and negation of divinity from himself. This argument is also the best argument (jadāl aḥsan) with them.

If the divinity of Jesus and his being a partner with God were true - meaning that both God would be described with divinity and Jesus too - the believer in this shared divinity (ulūhiyya ishtirākī) should not be among the people of Hell. However, the holder of such a belief is deprived of Paradise and Hell is definitely his abode: “Indeed, whoever associates partners with God - God has forbidden Paradise for him, and his refuge is the Fire”; it becomes clear that God is One and has no partner named Jesus.

According to the first two proofs, one who is “created” (makhlūq) and a “servant” (ʿabd) is not a deity, and according to the third proof, belief in the divinity and making a created being a lord is polytheism (shirk) that causes one to be consigned to Hell.

Note:

1. Christians have branched into multiple groups. If a number of them - who both have relative abundance and are not devoid of fame - are connected to and united in one opinion (such as the Jacobite sect (firqat Yaʿqūbiyya) which believed in the divinity of Jesus (a.s.) and the union of humanity (nāsūt) and divinity (lāhūt) regarding him), the mentioned matter can be attributed to the Christians (Naṣārā). Of course, the true believers among them enjoy a degree of genuine knowledge and true belief that is also addressed in the verses. Moreover, it is clear that the disappearance of the mentioned group or the denial of the facts of this matter by later generations does not harm the truthfulness of God’s word: “And who is more truthful than God in statement - in word.”(11)

2. Some have considered intercession (shafāʿa) a type of idolatry and have referred to it as “the idolatry of intercession” (wathaniyyat al-shafāʿa);(12) unaware that deviation from justice is sometimes in going toward the right and left: “The right and left are misguidance, and the middle path is the main road” (al-yamīn wa-l-shimāl maḍalla wa-l-ṭarīq al-wusṭā hiya l-jādda)(13) and sometimes in the form of excess above and negligence below. Pure monotheism (tawḥīd) is protected from both the first harm and the second damage.(14)