In agreement with God’s
true Word,
“And straightway coming up
out of the water, he saw the heavens opened, and the Spirit like a dove
descending upon him: and there came a voice from heaven, saying, Thou
art my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” Mark 1:10-11 Authorized King
James Version (AV)
“that it might be fulfilled
which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, Behold my servant, whom I have
chosen; my beloved, in whom my soul is well pleased: I will put my
spirit upon him, and he shall shew judgment to the Gentiles… But if I
cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of
God is come unto you.” Matthew 12:17-18 AV
“And Jesus being
full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the
Spirit into the wilderness… And Jesus returned in the power of the
Spirit into Galilee: and there went out a fame of him through all
the region round about… The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me
to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and
recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,”
Luke 4:1, 14, 18 AV
“And John bare record,
saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it
abode upon him. And I knew him not: but he that sent me to baptize with
water, the same said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit
descending, and remaining on him, the same is he which baptizeth with
the Holy Ghost.” John 1:32-33 AV
“that word, I say, ye know,
which was published throughout all Judæa, and began from Galilee, after the
baptism which John preached; 38 how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with
the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing
all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.” Acts 10:37-38 AV
The Quran attests that
Jesus was supported by the Holy Spirit:
And verily We gave unto
Moses the Scripture and We caused a train of messengers to follow after him,
and We gave unto Jesus, son of Mary, clear proofs (of Allah’s
sovereignty), and We supported him with the Holy spirit. Is
it ever so, that, when there cometh unto you a messenger (from Allah) with that
which ye yourselves desire not, ye grow arrogant, and some ye disbelieve and
some ye slay? S. 2:87 Pickthall
Of those messengers, some
of whom We have caused to excel others, and of whom there are some unto whom
Allah spake, while some of them He exalted (above others) in degree; and We
gave Jesus, son of Mary, clear proofs (of Allah’s Sovereignty) and
We supported him with the holy Spirit. And if Allah had so willed it,
those who followed after them would not have fought one with another after the
clear proofs had come unto them. But they differed, some of them believing and
some disbelieving. And if Allah had so willed it, they would not have fought
one with another; but Allah doeth what He will. S. 2:253 Pickthall
“GOD will say, ‘O Jesus,
son of Mary, remember My blessings upon you and your mother. I
supported you with the Holy Spirit, to enable you to speak to the
people from the crib, as well as an adult…’” S. 5:110 Khalifa
Ironically, neither the
author(s)/editor(s) nor the Muslim expositors understood the clear Trinitarian
implications of these statements. Instead, the Islamic scholars and
commentators were all over the map in their description of who or what exactly
the Holy Spirit was/is:
(87) Commentators are
agreed that the spirit here means Gabriel. This view is related on the
authority of Qatadah, al-Suddi, Ibn ‘Abbas, and Rabi‘ ibn Anas. Ibn Zayd,
however, said, “God fortified Jesus with the Gospel, which is a spirit, as God
called the Qur’an a spirit. Both the Gospel and the Qur’an are the spirit of
God, as He says, ‘And thus have we sent down to you a spirit of our command’”
(Q. 42:52). Ibn ‘Abbas said, “the spirit was the name of God through which Jesus
was able to revive the dead” (Tabari, II, pp. 320-321). Ar-Rabi’ Ibn Anas
said, “It was the spirit which God breathed into him.” Tabarsi, however,
said, “The best interpretation is to say that it was Gabriel. If it is asked
why Jesus was, among all the prophets, specially mentioned as being supported
by Gabriel, when every prophet was also supported by him, it will be said that
he was so mentioned because Gabriel accompanied him from his youth to his
manhood. Gabriel also appeared to Mary when she conceived Jesus, he announced
him to her and breathed the Spirit of God into her’ (Tabarsi, I, p.
349).” (Mahmoud M. Ayoub, The Qur’an and its Interpreters [State
University of New York Press (SUNY), Albany, NY 1984], Volume One, pp. 124-125;
bold emphasis mine)
Suffice it to say, the
foregoing interpretations of who and what God’s Spirit happens to be are filled
with major problems.
To begin with, contrary to
the assertion of Tabarsi, stating that Gabriel is the Holy Spirit is NOT the
best interpretation for the following reasons.
First, nowhere does the
Quran identify the the Holy Spirit, Faithful Spirit, or God’s Spirit as
Gabriel. In fact, when Muhammad was asked about who the Spirit was/is he
claimed ignorance, stating that only a little knowledge had been revealed
concerning the Spirit’s precise identity:
They are asking thee
concerning the Spirit. Say: The Spirit is by command of my Lord, and of
knowledge ye have been vouchsafed but little. S. 17:85 Pickthall
Here was the perfect time
for Muhammad to have come right out and simply identified the Spirit as Gabriel
if this is what he truly thought. His answer shows that he didn’t believe for a
moment that Gabriel and the Holy Spirit were one and the same entity.
This brings me to my next
point. The Spirit is routinely distinguished from all the angels:
He sendeth down the
angels with the Spirit of His command unto whom He will of His
bondmen, (saying): Warn mankind that there is no God save Me, so keep your duty
unto Me. S. 16:2 Pickthall
(Whereby) the
angels and the Spirit ascend unto Him in a Day whereof the span is
fifty thousand years. S. 70:4 Pickthall
On the day when the
angels and the Spirit stand arrayed, they speak not, saving him
whom the Beneficent alloweth and who speaketh right. S. 78:38 Pickthall
The angels and the
Spirit descend therein, by the permission of their Lord, with all
decrees. S. 97:4 Pickthall
Third, the Quran describes
the Spirit as issuing forth from God himself for the express purpose of
creating and giving life:
And (remember) when thy
Lord said unto the angels: Lo! I am creating a mortal out of potter’s clay of
black mud altered, So, when I have made him and have breathed into
him of My Spirit, do ye fall down, prostrating yourselves unto him. S.
15:28-29 Pickthall
And who remained
chaste/(protected) her genital parts , so We blew into her from Our
Soul/Spirit (roohina), and We made/created her and her son (as) an
evidence/sign to the creations all together/(universes). S. 21:91(Muhammad
Ahmed – Samira https://www.islamawakened.com/quran/21/st19.htm)
And Mary Amran’s daughter
who remained chaste (protected) her genital parts between her legs,
so We blew in it from Our Soul/Spirit (roohina), and she confirmed/was
truthful with her Lord’s words/expressions, and His Books , and she was from
the worshipping humbly. S. 66:12 (Muhammad Ahmed – Samira https://www.islamawakened.com/quran/66/st19.htm)
The Spirit was obviously
breathed into Adam and Mary in order to animate the first man, thereby making
him a living being, and to cause the blessed mother to miraculously conceive a
son without sexual intercourse. This is precisely what the Spirit supposedly
told Mary, namely, he was sent to give her a faultless son:
And make mention of Mary in
the Scripture, when she had withdrawn from her people to a chamber looking
East, And had chosen seclusion from them. Then We sent unto her Our
Spirit and it assumed for her the likeness of a perfect man. She said:
Lo! I seek refuge in the Beneficent One from thee, if thou art
God-fearing. He said: I am only a messenger of thy
Lord, that I may bestow on
thee a faultless son.
She said: How can I have a son when no mortal hath touched me, neither have I
been unchaste? He said: So (it will be). Thy Lord saith: It is easy for Me. And
(it will be) that We may make of him a revelation for mankind and a mercy from
Us, and it is a thing ordained. S. 19:16-21 Pickthall
Seeing that the Spirit is
breathed out by God this means he is an intrinsic part of God’s very own
eternal being, and therefore cannot be a creature. This is further confirmed by
the Spirit’s ability to create and give life, characteristics that make him
truly divine in nature.
With the foregoing in mind,
to say that the Holy Spirit is that which God breathed into Jesus, or into
Mary, raises further challenges to the Islamic claim that Christ was nothing
more than a human creature. Either of these views essentially means the same
thing, namely, that Jesus is the actual Spirit of God who became a flesh and
blood human being.
This view is supported by the
following passage:
O People (of) the Book!
(Do) not commit excess in your religion and (do) not say about Allah except the
truth. Only the Messiah, Isa, son (of) Maryam, (was) a Messenger of Allah and
His word which He conveyed to Maryam and a spirit from Him. So believe
in Allah and His Messengers. And (do) not say, “Three;” desist (it is) better
for you. Only Allah (is) God One. Glory be to Him! That He (should) have for
Him a son. To Him (belongs) whatever (is) in the heavens and whatever (is) in
the earth. And Allah is sufficient (as) a Disposer of affairs. S. 4:171
(Literal Word-for-Word Translation https://www.islamawakened.com/quran/4/st61.htm)
Note that Jesus is
expressly identified as the Word of God that came down as a Spirit being who
entered into Mary, obviously for the express purpose of becoming human. This is
why Islamic tradition calls Jesus Kalimatullah (“the Word of
God”) and Ruhullah (“the Spirit of God”):
Ruh-Ullah – Spirit of God,
A special title given by Prophet Muhammad to Jesus (A. A.) (M.
A. Qazi, Concise Dictionary of Islamic Terms [Kazi
Publications, Chicago IL, 1979], p. 57; bold emphasis mine)
“… They will go to ‘Isa and
say, ‘O ‘Isa! You are the Messenger of Allah and
His Word which He cast to Maryam and a spirit from Him. You spoke to people while in the cradle. Intercede with your
Lord on our behalf. Do you not see what we are suffering?’ ‘Isa will say, ‘My
Lord is angry today with such anger as has never existed before nor will
again,’ AND HE DID NOT MENTION A
SIN. ‘O my soul! My soul! My soul! Go to
someone else. Go to Muhammad.’ (Aisha Bewley, The Sahih Collection of
al-Bukhari, Chapter 68. Book of Tafsir; bold, capital and underline emphasis mine)
Jami` at-Tirmidhi
Chapters on Virtues
Narrated Ibn ‘Abbas:
that a group of people from
the Companions of the Messenger of Allah sat waiting for him. He said: “Then he
came out, such that when he came close to them, he heard them talking, and he
heard what they were saying. So some of them said: ‘It’s amazing that Allah,
the Mighty and Sublime, has taken a Khalil (close friend) from His creation. He
took Ibrahim as a Khalil.’ And some of them said: ‘That is not more amazing
than speaking to Musa, He spoke to him with real speech.’ And some said: ‘And ‘Eisa is THE WORD OF ALLAH and His Spirit.’ And some said: ‘Adam was chosen by Allah.’ So he came out
upon them and said his Salam, and said: ‘I have heard your words, and your
amazement that Ibrahim is the Khalil of Allah, and he is such, and that Musa is
the one spoken to by Allah, and he is such, and
that ‘Eisa is THE SPIRIT OF ALLAH and HIS WORD, and he is such, and that Adam was chosen by Allah, and he is such…
Grade: Da’if (Darussalam)
English reference: Vol. 1,
Book 46, Hadith 3616
Arabic reference: Book 49,
Hadith 3976 (Sunnah.com;
capital, italic and underline emphasis ours)
Now seeing that God’s
Spirit creates and gives life, this helps us appreciate why Jesus in the Quran
creates and breathes life into inanimate clay objects,
When the angels said,
‘Mary, God gives thee good tidings of a Word from Him whose name is Messiah,
Jesus, son of Mary; high honoured shall he be in this world and the next, near
stationed to God.He shall speak to men in the cradle, and of age, and righteous
he shall be.’ ‘Lord,’ said Mary, ‘how shall I have a son seeing no mortal has
touched me?’ ‘Even so,’ God said, ‘God creates what He will. When He decrees a
thing He does but say to it “Be,” and it is. And He will teach him the Book,
the Wisdom, the Torah, the Gospel, to be a Messenger to the Children of Israel
saying, “I have come to you with a sign from your Lord. I WILL
CREATE for you out of CLAY (anni AKHLUQU lakum mina al-TINI) as the likeness of
a bird; then I WILL BREATHE (fa-anfukhu) into it, and it will be a bird,
by the leave of God. I will also heal the blind and the leper, and
bring to life the dead, by the leave of God. I will inform you too of
what things you eat, and what you treasure up in your houses. Surely in that is
a sign for you, if you are believers. S. 3:45-49 Arberry
When God said, ‘Jesus Son
of Mary, remember My blessing upon thee and upon thy mother, when I confirmed
thee with the Holy Spirit, to speak to men in the cradle, and of age; and when
I taught thee the Book, the Wisdom, the Torah, the Gospel; and when
THOU CREATEST out of CLAY (wa-idh TAKHLUQU mina al-TINI, by My leave, as the
likeness of a bird, and THOU BREATHEST (fatanfukhu) into it, and it is a bird,
by My leave; and thou healest the blind and the leper by My leave, and
thou bringest the dead forth by My leave; and when restrained from thee the Children of Israel when thou
camest unto them with the clear signs, and the unbelievers among them said,
“This is nothing but sorcery manifest. S. 5:110 Arberry
In the exact same fashion
that Allah created and breathed life into the clay body of Adam:
Behold, thy Lord said to
the angels: “I am about to create (inni khaliqun) man from clay (tinin):
When I have fashioned him (in due proportion) and breathed
(wanafakhtu) into him of My spirit, fall ye down in obeisance unto
him.” S. 38:71-72 Y. Ali
I.e., Jesus is that very
life-giving Spirit whom God breathes out, and is therefore an eternal and
essential aspect of God’s very own Being!
This is further brought out
by Jesus’ being described as God’s own Word. Seeing that the Islamic scripture
testifies that God created all things by his command/word,
He it is Who created the
heavens and the earth in truth. In the day when He saith: Be! it is. His
Word is the Truth, and His will be the Sovereignty on the day when the
trumpet is blown. Knower of the Invisible and the Visible, He is the Wise, the
Aware. S. 6:73 Pickthall
And Our word unto
a thing, when We intend it, is only that We say unto it: Be! and it
is. S. 16:40 Pickthall
And seeing that Jesus is
the Word of God, this again explains why Jesus has the power to create and give
life in the exact same way that God does.
I will put this in a form
of syllogism in order to help the readers see the implication of the Quran’s
teaching on the Person and work of Christ:
1. God’s Word is eternal.
2. Jesus is the Word of God.
3. Jesus is, therefore, eternal by nature.
4. God created everything through his eternal Word.
5. Jesus creates and breathes out life in the exact same way that
God does.
6. This further confirms that Jesus is God’s very own creative
Command or Word, being the One through whom God brought the entire creation into
existence.
At this point, the Muslim
scripture is doing nothing other than parrot what God’s only inspired
revelation teaches concerning the Person of Christ:
“In the beginning was the
Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning
with God. All things were created through Him, and without Him
nothing was created that was created. In Him was life, and the life was
the light of mankind… He was in the world, and the world was created through
Him, yet the world did not know Him… The Word became flesh and
dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, the glory as the only Son of the Father,
full of grace and truth.” John 1:1-4, 10, 14 Modern English Version (MEV)
“So it is written: The
first man Adam became a living being; the last Adam became a
life-giving Spirit.” 1 Corinthians 15:45 Holman Christian Standard
Bible (HCSB)
So much for the Muslim
claim that the Quran is a coherent, consistent message, that explicitly denies
the essential Deity and eternal prehuman existence of the Lord Jesus.
Further Reading
The Quran on Jesus as the Preexistent Spirit of Allah (https://answeringislam.net/Shamoun/jesus_spirit.htm)
The Quran Confirms the Prehuman Existence and Incarnation of
Christ Pt. 1 (https://answeringislamblog.wordpress.com/2016/09/05/the-quran-confirms-the-prehuman-existence-and-incarnation-of-christ/),
Pt. 2 (https://answeringislamblog.wordpress.com/2019/05/22/the-quran-confirms-the-prehuman-existence-and-incarnation-of-christ-pt-2/)
Let the Study Quran Speak Pt. 1 (https://www.answeringislam.net/authors/shamoun/study_quran_speak1a.html),
Pt. 1b (https://www.answeringislam.net/authors/shamoun/study_quran_speak1b.html)
The Quran Confirms the Trinity! Pt. 3a (https://www.answeringislam.net/authors/shamoun/q_confirms_t3a.html), 3b (https://www.answeringislam.net/authors/shamoun/q_confirms_t3b.html)
Jesus – The Preexistent, Divine Word and Spirit from God (https://www.answeringislam.net/Responses/Osama/zawadi_spirit.htm)
IHS
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