Tawhid and Christian monotheism

Stub. Define the words before you trade verses. “One,” “partner,” and “son” are doing different work on each side of the table.

The question

Tawhid is the Islamic confession that God is uniquely one, without partners, rivals, or division. Christians say the Shema with Jews and refuse polytheism. The argument is not whether God is one. It is whether the Christian naming of Father, Son, and Spirit sneaks in partners under a softer word.

A fair statement of tawhid

Surah 112 is short enough to read in full: God is one, the eternal refuge, he does not beget and is not begotten, and there is none like him. Qur’an 4:171 tells the People of the Book not to exaggerate, names Jesus as a messenger and a word and a spirit from God, and says do not say “three.” God is one God. A Muslim who presses this is not being difficult. They are reading their scripture and hearing Christians appear to deny it.

“Son of God,” in that hearing, sounds like biology: a consort, a child, a second god. If a Christian does not reject that picture out loud, they have not answered the verse.

A Christian starting point

Reject the picture. Christians do not confess that God took a wife or that the Father and the Son are two deities who signed a pact. “Begotten” in the creed is the church’s old word for the Son’s relation to the Father, and it was chosen in part to deny that the Son was made as creatures are made. It is not a claim about a divine mother. Say that in plain speech before you cite John.

Then say what Christians do confess, and send the conversation to the Trinity for the positive account. John 10:30 (“I and the Father are one”) will be quoted by both sides: Muslims and Jehovah’s Witnesses often hear unity of purpose, Nicene Christians hear more. Do not pretend the pronoun settles it. Read the conflict around the verse, including the charge of blasphemy that follows.

Mark 12:29 is Jesus himself reciting the Shema. Christians who never mention that look as if they have not read their own Gospel.

Scripture to open together

• Qur’an 112, the whole surah.
• Qur’an 4:171.
• Deuteronomy 6:4 and Mark 12:28–34.
• John 10:22–39, not verse 30 alone.

Keep reading

• The Trinity
• Jesus in the Qur’an and the Gospels
• The deity of Christ