CHAPTER 4: INVALIDITY OF THE THREE ENTITIES BEING ONE GOD
They say: The three names, which are: One God, One Name, One Lord, One Creator and A Living Speaking Being. He is and will always be A Living Speaking Being who is the entity, speech and life.
The entity is the father that is the beginning of both.
Speaking is the Son that is born to the Father, for speaking is a part of the mind.
The Holy Spirit is life.
The Answer:
One: the names of Allah, the Exalted are too numerous, for, he is the King, the Holy, the One Free from all defects, the Giver of security, the Watcher over His creatures, the All-Mighty, the Compeller, the Supreme, and he is the Creator, the Inventor of all things, the Bestower of forms, etc. therefore, limiting His Names to three only, or making allegations about the function of such three names is completely invalid.
Two: Their saying that the Father is the beginning of both, and that the Son is the speech that is born to the Father as well as saying that speech is born to the mind, is again totally invalid.
The attributes of perfection are limited to the entity of the Lord, Exalted and Glorified be He, the Only and Alone. He is, and will always be Living, All-knower, and All-powerful. He did not become a Living being after being non-existent, nor did He become All-knower after being ignorant.
If they say that the father, who is the entity, is the beginning of life and speech, then he must have come before life and speech. The thing that precedes another either came before it or is its maker. It is totally incorrect to say such things about Allah.
Three: claiming that the Son is born to the Father meaning that he is His concomitant attribute, thus, the same applies to life, which is also a concomitant attribute of God. This means that the Holy Spirit is another son of the Father. And if they meant that the son came from the father after being non-existent, then he must have been Ali-knower after being ignorant, which is invalid and is considered as disbelief. Besides, this means that God became a Living being after being non-existent.
Four: calling the life of God a Holy Spirit is not mentioned in any of the revealed books. Thus, it is considered a distortion and something that has been changed by them.
Five: they claim that the object unified with Christ is the Word, meaning knowledge. This is in case they are referring to the same knowing, speaking entity, then Christ is the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, which is invalid and is regarded as disbelief according to them as well as to all other religions.
If they claim that the object unified with God is knowledge, then since knowledge is an inseparable attribute of the knower and inseparable of the other attribute, which is life, then knowledge cannot be unified with Him without the entity or without life.
Six: knowledge is also an attribute, and attributes do not create or sustain anything. Besides, Christ himself is not a dependent attribute according to the general consensus of wise scholars. Moreover, for Christians, Christ is the creator of the heavens and the earth. So, the object unified with Him cannot be an attribute, for, the Deity God is the Living All-knower All-powerful God, yet, He is not life, knowledge or speech.
If someone says, “O! Life of god”, “O! Knowledge of god”, or “O! Speech of god! I ask your forgiveness, mercy and guidance” this is invalid according to plain rationally deduced evidence. Thus, no wise scholars in any religion stated that it is permissible to ask the forgiveness of the Bible or the Torah or of any revealed words of Allah. Yet, we invoke the Deity God who is the Speaker of such words saying, “O! I ask Your Forgiveness and Mercy.”
Christ (peace be upon him), according to the Christians is the Creator to whom we ask forgiveness and mercy. If He were the knowledge of god or the word of god, He would not be the Deity God. So, what is the case if He is not the knowledge and word of god but instead is created by god’s words? For, God said ‘Be’ and He is.
It is known that Christ was created by one word of God, Exalted and Glorified be He.
Seven: Your Canon, which was established by your priests in the presence of Constantine, and which encompasses your belief that you have made the origin of your religion, contradicts your claim that there is only one God and shows that you say the contrary of what you believe.
These are two well-known matters in your religion, first your contradiction, and second you show the opposite of what you say in debates, according to the principles of your religion.
Christians say in the Canon in which they believe, “I believe in one God the Father Almighty; Maker of’ the heavens and the earth, and of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds [God of God], Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance [essence] with the Father; by whom all things were made; who, for us men and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary, and was made man; and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate; He suffered and was buried; and the third day He rose again, according to the Scriptures; and ascended into heaven, and sits on the right hand of the Father; and He shall come again, in glory, to judge both the quick and the dead; whose kingdom shall have no end.
And [I believe] in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver of Life; who proceeds from the Father [and the Son]; who with the Father and the Son together is worshiped and glorified; who spoke by the Prophets. And [I believe] in one Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. I acknowledge one Baptism for the remission of sins; and I look forward to the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.” (Nicene Creed)
According to this Canon which you have made the origin of your religion, you believe in three things: One God who is the Creator of the Heavens and the earth, the Creator of the seen and the unseen, and this is the Lord of the worlds and there is neither God nor Lord but Him. He is the God of Ibrahim (Abraham, peace be upon him), Ishaq (Isaac, peace be upon him), Ya’qub (Jacob, peace be upon him) and all the other prophets and messengers, and they all call to worship Him Alone with no other partner, and forbid to worship anyone but Him. Allah, the Exalted, says,
which means, “And We did not send any Messenger before you (O Muhammad) but We inspired him (saying): La ilaha ilia Ana (none has the right to be worshipped but I (Allah)), so worship Me (Alone and none else).” (Al-Anbiya, 21: 25)
He, the Almighty also says,
which means, “And ask (O Muhammad) those of Our Messengers whom We sent before you: ‘Did We ever appoint aliha (gods) to be worshipped besides the Most Beneficent (Allah)?’’’ (Az-Zukhruf, 43: 45)
And then the Christians say, “And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds [God of God], Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance [essence] with the Father.”
Thus, you have said that you believe in one created Lord besides the Creator of the heavens and the earth. The Only Son of God is equal to the father, and you said, “Very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance [essence] with the Father.”
This is an explicit statement of belief in two gods, one of them who was born to the other. And it is well-known that the knowledge, speech and wisdom of god that you named as the Son of god, are attributes dependent on Him. None of the other messengers claimed that the attribute of god is His Son. Consequently, He (the Son) is not a God from a God. Yet, there is only one God and the other is His attribute, which is not a God, just as the attributes of omnipotence, hearing, vision and all other attributes of god are not Gods. For, God is only one, but He has numerous attributes. Besides, God is a described Entity that stands by Itself, while the attribute is dependent on the described entity. And you named God the ‘Essence’ and described Him as being independent and standing by Himself. On the other hand, the attribute is not a dependent essence.
In this Canon, they said that god is the Father, and that the Son is born to Him. They said that god is the Son who is begotten. They made the Son equal to God in essence, while god exalted Himself above all three kinds. Thus, they said, “Begotten, not made, being of one substance [essence] with the Father;” They asserted that he is equal to Him in essence, while they are not equivalent.
Nothing can be equal to the Father in essence except another essence, therefore, the Father must be a second essence, and the Holy Spirit a third and this will be clarified later in the book.
This is a statement asserting the existence of three essences and three gods, yet, Christians claim that they are proving that there is only one God and one essence. This statement contradicts itself.
It is true what some scholars say that Christians combine two things. One is saying that there is only one God and one essence, and the other is proving the existence of three Gods and three essences. Allah exalted Himself above all that, saying,
which means, “Say (0 Muhammad), ‘He is Allah, (the) One, Allah-us-Samad (The Self-Sufficient Master, Whom all creatures need, He neither eats nor drinks), He begets not, nor was He begotten, And there is none co-equal or comparable unto Him.'” (Al-lkhlas, 112: 1-4)
Allah has exalted Himself above begetting, while they say that He is the father, and above being begotten while they also say that He is the son, as well as having none like unto Him, but Christians say that He has an equal in essence.
If the Christians say that you mean He is One entity and has three attributes, we say that you have stated that He is a very God from a very God that equals him in essence, but this proves the existence of another essence not another attribute. Thus, you have combined the two sayings, proving three essences, and proving one essence. You have no justification, like Yahya bin Ady and others. It is like you say: Zaid the doctor, accountant and writer, and: Zaid the doctor, Zaid the accountant, and Zaid the writer.
Therefore, with each attribute he has an effect that differs from the effect accompanying the other attribute. They may explain the hypostasis in the same manner. They say the hypostasis is the entity along with the attribute. Thus, the entity with each attribute is considered to be hypostasis, so, there are three hypostases. But this is not true of your saying. Zaid here is one essence while he has three attributes: medicine, mathematics and writing. There are no three essences, but each attribute has an essence that differs from the other.
No rational person can say that the attribute is equal to the attributed object in essence. Nor can one say that the entity with this attribute is equal to the entity with the other attribute in essence. The entity is one and the equivalent cannot be the thing that is equal to it. So, if this is the unified object concerning Christ, then what is unified with him is the Father. And you say, “Very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance [essence] with the Father; by whom all things were made; who, us men and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary, and was made nan; and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate; He suffered.”
This means that the very God that equals the Father in essence has been crucified and hurt. Thus, the Divine Entity has been crucified and hurt, which is acknowledged by certain sects among you and denied by others. Your Canon supports the first.
Furthermore, if he has been incarnated from the Holy Spirit and Maryam (Mary), and if the Holy Spirit is the life of god, as you claim, then Christ is the Word of God and His Life. This means that His Divinity is two of the three hypostases. But for Christians, Christ is the hypostasis of the Word only. And if the Holy Spirit is not the Life of God, your explanation for the Holy Spirit is rendered invalid.
You have been told that the Holy Spirit cannot be an attribute of God or a hypostasis. Then you state in the creed of your Canon that you believe in the Holy Spirit the God Who gives life, thus proving a third god, as you said “The one emanating from God”, and emanation is explosion, like emission and streaming. For instance, we say, the stream spouted in a certain place etc, which means it penetrated it and exploded from it. According to that, this God Who gives life must have exploded from the Father and emanated from Him.
Then you say, “Who with the Father and the Son together is worshiped and glorified; who spoke by the Prophets.” So, you described Him as being prostrated to, therefore, you have proven a third God, that others prostrate to.
And it is known that the Life of God, which is His attribute, does not emanate from Him. Yet, it is dependent on Him and never emanates from Him. Besides, it is His concomitant attribute and has no relation to any one else. For example, knowledge is related to information, and capacity is related to the things that can be done, and making others speak is related to the speakers unlike the ability to speak, for, it is an inseparable attribute. We say, “God knows such and such”, and “God is capable of doing such and such”, as well as, “God has spoken to Moses.”
The word referring to life is inseparable and is not related to non living beings. Furthermore, giving life is different from being alive, in the same way that makes teaching different from learning, and enabling others to do things is different from the capacity to do things, and making others speak is different from speaking. Then you said that the Holy Spirit speaks in the prophets. The life of God is His dependent attribute that cannot be related to any other being, and the Holy Spirit that is found in the prophets and the righteous is not the life of God that is dependent upon Him. if the Holy Spirit that exists through the prophets were one of the three hypostases, then each prophet would be a deity god whose divine and human natures are unified, such as Christ according to your claim. For, when one of the hypostases unified with Christ, He became both a divine entity and a human one. Therefore, if the Holy Spirit, which is one of the three hypostases, is speaking through the prophets, then each of them has divine and human natures like Christ. On the other hand, the Christians only acknowledge the union and immanent for Christ, yet you prove for others what is proven for Him.
Sometimes Christians liken the two hypostases of Knowledge and Life – the Word and the Holy Spirit – to the light and temperature of the sun, with the sun itself. They also liken them to the life and speech of the entity with the sun. This is incorrect, for if they meant by the light and temperature what is dependent on the entity, still, the light and temperature are attributes of the sun that are dependent on it and are not unified with another object, and the same applies for the sun’s attribute. Thus, if it is said that temperature is dependent on the sun, anything else is forbidden.
The intended meaning here is to clarify the invalidity of their statements and analogy, and if they want to say that the clear things about the sun are dependent upon other objects than the sun, like the ray which is dependent upon the air, earth and temperature, this would be evidence of the invalidity of their saying from different aspects:
One of them is that these are clear and separated attributes of the sun that are dependent on other things. What is parallel to that is knowledge, wisdom and revelation that are dependent on the hearts of the prophets. Proceeding from that assessment, there is nothing in the human entity that is taken from the divine entity. There is only the impact of its wisdom and capacity.
Another point of invalidity is that temperature and light that are dependent on the air and walls, are also attributes that are dependent on other objects. Still, the Word and the Holy Spirit for the Christians are two essences.
Third, this is neither the sun nor an attribute of it, yet it is an impact caused by the sun and affects other things. Yet, it is an impact of the sun that affects another object. Such things cannot be denied concerning the prophets and righteous people, but it is not specific to Christ. What happened to Him also happened to other messengers. Similarly, whatever did not happen to other messengers did not happen to Him either. Thus, Christ is not empowered with certain competence that makes Him a God to the exclusion of all other messengers. Besides, there is no unity between the human and divine entities, the same as neither the sun nor any of its dependent attributes have unified with the air or with the earth through which the ray brought about temperature.
Baptizing in the Name of the Father and the Son
In the Gospel, Christ said to his pure disciples, “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.” (Matt: 28:19)
Concerning this statement, it is said to them (i.e., Christians), “This is your evidence for what you claim about the three hypostases, but it does not indicate the trinity either in wording or meaning. The word ‘son’ is never used in Divine Books to denote one of the attributes of Allah. None of the Prophets called the Knowledge of Allah His son, or His Speech His son. Rather the Prophets in the Divine Books, were referred to as Allah’s servants. Thus, your claim that Christ meant by knowledge, the son of Allah, is a manifest lie. Saying so is a form of interpreting a word with that which is not applicable to it, whether clearly or metaphorically. There is no grave lie or distortion of the prophet’s speeches than this. If the word ‘son’ were used to refer to one of the attributes of Allah, His Life would have also been called a son as well as His Power. Specifying the knowledge with the word ‘son’ without Life is another mistake if the word ‘son’ is used to denote an attribute of Allah. What if it is not so? The same is applied to the Holy Spirit; it is never used in Divine Books to denote or to mean that the Life of Allah is one of His attributes. It rather means what Allah causes revelation to descend upon the prophets and their sincere followers. This is supported by the saying of Dawud (David, peace be upon him), “I spill of my soul on every saint.” In the Psalms, it is said, ‘Teach me to do thy will; for thou art my God: thy spirit is good; lead me into the land of uprightness.” (Psalms: 143:10) They, (i.e., the Christians), said in their Canon, “For us humans and for our salvation, He descended from heaven and is incarnated from the Holy Spirit and from the Virgin Mary.” They mentioned that this is found in the Holy Books, and whatever is found in the Holy Books can never be false. There is no doubt that these books contain what is similar to that which is in the Qur’an. In the Qur’an, it is related that Allah sent His Spirit to Maryam (Mary, may Allah be pleased with her), breathed into her so she became pregnant with Christ (peace be upon him). The Exalted says,
which means, “And (remember) she who guarded her chastity [the Virgin Mary (Maryam)], We breathed into (the sleeves of) her (shirt or garment) [through Our Ruh Jibril (Gabriel)], and We made her and her son [Isa (Jesus)] a sign for AI-‘Alamin (the mankind and jinn).” (Al-Anbiya’, 21: 91)
He, the Almighty also says,
which means, “And Maryam (Mary), the daughter of ‘Imran who guarded her chastity; and We breathed into (the sleeve of her shirt or her garment) through Our Ruh [i.e., Jibril (Gabriel)], and she testified to the truth of the Words of her Lord [i.e., believed in the Words of Allah: “Be!” and he was; that is Isa (Jesus) son of Maryam (Mary); as a Messenger of Allah], and [also believed in)
His Scriptures, and she was of the Qanitin (i.e., obedient to Allah).” (At-Tahrim, 66: 13)
This Ruh (i.e., spirit) is a Messenger, as the Exalted says,
which means, “Then We sent to her Our Ruh [angel Jibril (Gabriel)], and he appeared before her in the form of a man in all respects. She said, ‘Verily! I seek refuge with the Most Beneficent (Allah) from you, if you do fear Allah.’ (The angel) said, ‘I am only a Messenger from your Lord, (to announce) to you the gift of a righteous son.'” (Maryam, 19: 17-19)
She was breathed in, so Christ was created from the Spirit and from his mother Maryam, just as they said in the Canon, “And was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary.” But they believed that the Holy Spirit from which Christ was created, as well as from Maryam, was the Life of Allah, but this is the part that is not verified in any of the Books, which, on the contrary, clearly contradicts that assertion. This also contradicts their belief that the hypostasis, which was united with Christ, was the Hypostasis of the Word, which is also Knowledge. If he was really incarnated from Maryam and from the Hypostasis of the Word, he would not be incarnated from the Holy Spirit or from the Hypostasis of the Word. If it were an incarnation from all of them, Christ would be two Hypostases: the Hypostasis of the Word and the Hypostasis of the Spirit.
The three sects of Christianity agree that the thing unified with Christ is the Hypostasis of the Word, not that of Life. This clarifies the inconsistency in their Canon, and the contradiction in their interpretation of the words of the prophets. It is also clear that what was proved by the prophet’s sayings is true and is in accordance with what Muhammad, the last of the prophets, came with, which does not contradict any of the words of the prophets. Thus, the Christians have misinterpreted the words of the prophets, namely, in their saying about the Son, the Holy Spirit, and the like, and attributed false meaning to the words, in such a way, which agrees with their intended meaning. How can it be correct to interpret the phrase, ‘the Holy Spirit’ with a meaning that was neither used nor intended by the prophets?
All this is simply an example of the actions of those who distort the words of the prophets and attribute lies to them. The apparent meaning of the phrase is that the disciples should baptize people in the name of the Father, who is the Lord, according to them, and in the name of the Son, who was brought up and raised. He is Christ who is also the Holy Spirit; i.e., the angel, the revelation, etc., with which Allah supported Christ. That is what their grand scholars mentioned as they attempted to interpret Christ’s saying, and it is also what they mentioned in their books as evidence for their claim about the three hypostases saying, “Referring to Allah by the names: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit was not invented by us Christians, but Allah Himself attributed them to His Divine Entity.”
Thus, it is clear that whatever they mentioned concerning the words of the prophets does not indicate, either explicitly or implicitly, that one of the prophets called Allah or any of His Attributes a son or a Holy Spirit. Similarly, calling the Knowledge and Speech of Allah a son and calling His Life a Holy Spirit are all names invented by Christians, about which Allah gave no authority. They have no textual or reasonably deduced evidence to support their claim about the hypostases. In addition, there is no legal proof for the trinity and limiting Allah’s Attributes to three only.
Moreover, it is also clear that they have no reasonably deduced proof and that those who claim this are amongst the ones about whom Allah says,
which means, “Had we but listened or used our intelligence, we would not have been among the dwellers of the blazing Fire:” (Al-Mulk, 67: 10)
and also says,
which means, “Or do you think that most of them hear or understand? They are only like cattle; nay, they are even farther astray from the Path. (I.e., even worse than cattle).” (Al-Furqan, 25: 44).
By: Sheikhul-Islaam Ibn Taymiyah
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