Establishing Monotheism and Refuting Polytheism

In Qur’anic terminology, the title “polytheist” (mushrik) is in opposition to the title “People of the Book” (ahl al-kitāb): “Surely those who believe, and those who are Jews, and the Sabians, and the Christians, and the Magians, and those who associate [others with God].”(22)

However, sometimes - with contextual indication - it calls them polytheists in divinity (ulūhiyya) and sometimes polytheists in lordship (rubūbiyya).

The most important matter concerning Christianity is their belief in the Trinity (tathlīth). Those who consider God to be the third of three (thālith thalātha) and by calling Christ the son of Mary God, they issue a religious ruling (fatwā) on his divinity, are disbelievers: “Those who say that God is the third of three have surely disbelieved”, because they are caught up in polytheism in divinity.

The notion of God being “the third of three” (thālith thalātha) is either in the form of belief in the incarnation (ḥulūl) of divinity in Christ; or in the form of belief in the transformation (inqilāb) and change (taḥawwul) of Christ into a god. In other words, the transformation and change is either from humanity (nāsūt) to divinity (lāhūt); or from divinity to humanity (incarnation). Based on this, the combination of God and Christ produces something called the Holy Spirit (rūḥ al-quds), and although they are three things, they are one thing; that is, “God (the Father), this God (the Son) and the Holy Spirit” are one, because either the Father has incarnated in this one, or this one has transformed into the Father, and the product of the combination of those two is the Holy Spirit, and each of these three (the Holy Spirit, the Son and the Father) are separate gods, so they are one reality while being three realities.

This notion is refuted by reason (ʿaql), tradition (naql) and mystical witnessing (shuhūd). Many of those who believe in the Trinity have not understood the essence of the matter, otherwise they would not have believed in it! How can it be that God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are all three God and at the same time God is one? That is, they are both multiple (kathīr) and one (wāḥid), in such a way that while being one, they are multiple, so the Trinity never has compatibility with monotheism (tawḥīd).

The verse “Those who say that God is the Messiah, son of Mary, have surely disbelieved. Say: Who then has any power against God if He desires to destroy the Messiah, son of Mary, and his mother and all those who are on earth? And to God belongs the dominion of the heavens and the earth and what is between them” (23) refutes the divinity (ulūhiyya) of Jesus through the fact that the honorable Jesus is under lordship (marbūb) and under the power of God, and that his life and death and that of his mother are in God’s hands.

At the same time, the verse “O People of the Book, do not go to extremes in your religion… and do not say ‘Three.’ Desist - it is better for you… The Messiah will never disdain to be a servant of God”(24) prohibits belief in the Trinity (tathlīth) by establishing servitude (ʿubūdiyya) for Jesus, and in the verse “There is no secret conversation of three but He is their fourth, nor of five but He is their sixth, nor less than that nor more but He is with them wherever they are” (25) speaks of the falsity of such a belief.

The explanation is that in every secret conversation (najwā) there are at least two people; now if - for example - three people have a secret conversation with each other, God is the fourth of those three people, not the third of three people nor the fourth of four people. So God is with those three people; but they are not four people because God does not have a specific and limited place to be beside others so as to be counted, but rather God is with each of the first, second and third; likewise He is the connector between the first and second, the connector between the second and third, and the connector between the first and third; that is, He is with all and has sustaining encompassment (iḥāṭat qayyūmī); but He has no place so that when taking a census He would be the fourth of four, but rather He is the fourth who is with these three but is not counted, and they remain three people, even though God is with them. So He is the fourth of three (rābiʿ thalātha), not the fourth of four (rābiʿ arbaʿa).

In summary, believing Him to be the fourth of four (rābiʿ arbaʿa) and the third of three (thālith thalātha) is disbelief (kufr), while the fourth of three (rābiʿ thalātha) is pure monotheism (tawḥīd). For in the third of three, three beings are on the same level, and in this case God would be placed in the same rank as Jesus and others, and the result of such counting would be God’s limitedness, createdness, and being under lordship (maḥdūdiyya, makhlūqiyya, and marbūbiyya), which ultimately concludes in denial of and disbelief in God.

On this basis, since the monotheism of the Exalted Truth is established, polytheism (shirk) will be false, and the divinity (ulūhiyya) of the Messiah and every being other than God is also refuted. However, with the refutation of the Messiah’s divinity, monotheism is not established, because it is possible that God has other partners besides the Messiah - as they have said “general negation necessitates specific negation, but specific negation does not necessitate general negation.” For this reason, the Qur’an, while establishing divine monotheism in a general way - such as “If there had been in them [the heavens and earth] gods other than God, they would surely have been corrupted” (26) - sometimes refutes the divinity of the Messiah that some have fallen into: “Indeed, whoever associates partners with God, God has forbidden Paradise to him, and his abode is the Fire”,(27) and sometimes establishes monotheism with special emphasis: “And there is no god except one God” so that in its light the Trinity (tathlīth) is also refuted.