Theological and historical errors in the Qur'an:
Mary was not part of the Christian trinity!
Islam: Truth or Myth? start page
Muhammad was not a very well informed theologian when he wrote the Koran.
Yes,
we know, Muslims will tell us that Muhammad didn't write the Qur'an. After
all
that way they can blame Allah for the errors and their prophet remains
sinless
and blameless!
Mohammed mistakenly thought that Mary was the third member of the
Christian
trinity.
Introduction:
1. Thanks to Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches, continuing trend
towards the worship of Mary that is in full bloom today, Islam views the
worship of Mary as a Bible doctrine. This is not true.
2. The Koran represents Christians as worshipping Mary as the third member
of the Trinity, when in fact the only ones worshiping Mary, based upon the
record of history, were the pagan Arabs who worship her idol in the Kaba
AND a
small heretic sect of Christians in the Mecca area. Obviously then,
Muhammad
believed that this sect
3. When Mohammed first cleansed the Kaba of the 360 pagan idols, both
Jesus and the mother of Mary were worshiped as deities. The Koran strongly
denies that Jesus or the mother of Mary are to be worshiped. What is
interesting is that the Koran actually represents Christians as
worshipping
Mary as the third member of the Trinity in Koran 5:116.
A. Here is what the Koran says:
"O People of the Book! Commit no excesses in your religion: Nor say of God
aught but the truth. Christ Jesus the son of Mary was (no more than) an
apostle
of God, and His Word, which He bestowed on Mary, and a spirit proceeding
from
Him: so believe in God and His apostles. Say not "Trinity" : desist: it
will be
better for you: for God is one God: Glory be to Him: (far exalted is He)
above
having a son. To Him belong all things in the heavens and on earth. And
enough
is God as a Disposer of affairs." (Koran 4:171)
"They do blaspheme who say: God is one of three in a Trinity: for there is
no
god except One God. If they desist not from their word (of blasphemy),
verily a
grievous penalty will befall the blasphemers among them." (Koran 5:73)
B. Here is what Muslim scholars say:
1. "Allah will say, "O Jesus, son of Mary, did you say to the people,
`Make me and my mother idols beside Allah?' Yusuf Ali, in footnote 829
commenting on this verse says, "The worship of Mary, though repudiated by
the
Protestants, was widely spread in the earlier Churches, both in the East
and
the West." (The holy Qur'an, text, translation and commentary by Abdullah
Yusuf
Ali. 1872-1952, First published in 1938, 1973 ed., p. 280, footnote 829,
commenting on 5:116)
C. Here is what non-Muslim scholars say about this error in the Koran:
1. "The passage of the Qur'an which suggests that the Trinity consists of
Father, Son, and Virgin Mary is doubtless a criticism of some nominally
Christian Arabs who held this view." (Muhammad at Mecca, W. Montgomery
Watt,
1953, p 23-29)
2. "In rude misconception or wilful perversion, Mohammed seems to have
understood the Christian doctrine of the trinity to be a trinity of
Father,
Mary, and Jesus. The Holy Spirit is identified with Gabriel. "God is only
one
God! Far be it from his glory that he should have a son!" Sura 4, ver.
169;
comp. 5, ver. 77. The designation and worship of Mary as "the mother of
God"
may have occasioned this strange mistake. There was in Arabia in the
fourth
century a sect of fanatical women called Collyridians, who rendered divine
worship to Mary. Epiphanius, Haer. 79." (Philip Schaff, History of the
Christian church, Vol 4, Ch 3)
3. The Qur'an shows that there was little knowledge in Mecca of the New
Testament apart from the story of the virginal conception of Jesus
(19.16-21).
On the other hand several mistaken ideas about Christianity appear to have
been
current among the Meccans. They supposed that Christians worshipped three
gods,
taking both Jesus and Mary as gods. (Muhammad's Mecca, W. Montgomery Watt,
Chapter 3: Religion In Pre-Islamic Arabia, p26-45)
4. "The Qur'an here denounces the idea of a Triad of Gods, consisting of
God, Jesus and Mary. Christians have never believed in this Triad. It is
only
too true that many ignorant "Christians" in Muhammad's time worshipped
Mary (as
some still do), asking her to intercede with her Son for them, and the
early
Muhammadans may hence have fancied that belief in three separate Gods, of
which
Mary was one, was what was meant by the doctrine of the Trinity. But such
an
idea was wrong and of heathen origin." (A Manual of the Leading Muhammadan
Objections to Christianity. W. St. Clair Tisdall, 1904, p 147)
5. These passages leave no doubt that Mohammed denied the doctrine of the
Trinity and that he conceived it to be, or affirmed it to be, a species of
tritheism consisting of God, Mary and Jesus Christ. [Whether Mohammed had
a
correct idea of the Trinity and deliberately put forth this travesty of
the
Christian idea, we will consider later.] The commentaries interpret the
Koran
as follows: Zamakhshari on 4:169 remarks, "The story received among
Christians
is that God is one in essence and three persons, (akanim) the person of
the
Father, the person of the Son and the person of the Holy Spirit. And they
verily mean by the person of the Father, the Being, and by the person of
the
Son, knowledge, and by the person of the Holy Spirit, life. And this
supposes
that God is the third of three, or, if not, that there are three gods. And
that
which the Koran here refers to is the clear statement of theirs, that God
and
Christ and Mary are three gods and that the Christ is a child (walad) of
God
from Mary." For proof he then quotes Surah 5:116, and adds: "And it is
universally known concerning Christians that they hold the deity and
humanity
of Christ as regards his father and mother." From this it is evident that
Zamakhshari had a more correct idea of the doctrine of the Trinity than
did
Mohammed and that after offering a modal trinity as the creed of
Christians he
covers up the Koran mistake by asserting, without proof, that the trinity
was a
triad of Father, Son and Mother. (Vol. I. of the Kishaf, p. 241.) Beidhawi
(on
4:169) remarks: "Jesus is called the Spirit of God because He makes the
dead to
live or quickens hearts." On the following verse he is doubtful; "Either
God is
the third of three gods or is a triad of Father, Son and Holy Spirit."
(Vol.
I., p. 319.) He, too, avoids a real explanation of the gross misstatement
in
the Koran that Mary is one of the persons of the Trinity. The Jilalain
(Vol.
I., p. 278) prove that Jesus cannot be God, "because He has a spirit and
everything possessed of a spirit is compounded (murakkib and God is
absolutely
without compounding, arrangement (tarkib), i.e., simple." He says the
Trinity
consists of "Allah and Jesus and His mother." (The Moslem Doctrine Of God,
Samuel M. Zwemer, 1905, p 80)
6. It is interesting to note that the charges against Christians of
looking upon the Virgin Mary as the third person of the Trinity is made in
the
last of all the Suras:- O Jesus, Son of Mary, hast thou said unto mankind
'Take
me and my mother as two Gods beside God? ' He shall say: 'Glory be unto
Thee!
it is not for me to say that which I know to be not the truth.' Sura
Al-Ma'idah
(v) 116. Whether Muhammad knew better or not is uncertain, but, however
that
may be, this is his parting accusation. He could have ascertained the true
facts of the case, for on Christian monuments found by Dr. B. Glaser in
Yemen,
the Sirwah inscription opens with the words, 'In the power of the
all-Merciful
and His Messiah and the Holy Ghost.' (Zwemer, Islam, p. 21.) To say the
least,
Muhammad here made a serious mistake, which it is difficult to reconcile
with
the verbal inspiration of the Qur'an. (The Historical Development Of The
Qur'an, Edward Sell, 1869-1932, p 172)
D. The Collyridians: A heretic sect in Arabia!
"There was in Arabia in the fourth century a sect of fanatical women
called
Collyridians (), who rendered divine worship to Mary. Epiphanius, Haer.
79."
(Philip Schaff, History of the Christian church, Vol 4, Ch 3)
1. "Epiphanius, in his seventy-eighth Heresy, combats the advocates of the
opposite view in Arabia toward the end of the fourth century (367), as
heretics
under the title of Antidikomarianites, opposers of the dignity of Mary,
i.e.,
of her perpetual virginity. But, on the other hand, he condemns, in the
seventy-ninth Heresy, the contemporaneous sect of the Collyridians in
Arabia, a
set of fanatical women, who, as priestesses, rendered divine worship to
Mary,
and, perhaps in imitation of the worship of Ceres, offered little cakes to
her;
he claims adoration for God and Christ alone. Jerome wrote, about 383,
with
indignation and bitterness against Helvidius and Jovinian, who, citing
Scripture passages and earlier church teachers, like Tertullian,
maintained
that Mary bore children to Joseph after the birth of Christ. (Philip
Schaff,
History of the Christian church, Vol 3, Ch 7)
2. "Kollyridians or Collyridians were adorers of Mary in the 4th century
Arabia, as Epiphanius mentioned in his writing against heretics (see:
Haer. 78,
23; 79). He coined the expression Collyridians which has the meaning of
"cake-eater-sect". Leontius of Byzance had a different name for them. He
called
them "Philomarianites", meaning Mary-lovers (PG 87, 1364). The priestesses
of
this sect used to present Our Lady with cakes or a special kind of bread
(kolluris) intended as offerings as was the custom in pre-Christian times.
This
sect, mainly consisting of women or at least led by woman priests,
propagated
what amounts to a Goddess cult regarding Our Lady. Epiphanius had this
warning
on their behalf: "Although Mary is the most beautiful and holy and worthy
of
praise, we don't owe her adoration" (Haer. 79, 7, PG 42, 752). In a
different
passage Epiphanius uses even stronger words: "Adoration must cease. For
Mary is
no goddess nor has she received her body from heaven. (oute gar theos hae
Maria
oute ap'ouranou exousa to soma)" (Haer. 78, 24). Collyridians are also
known
and mentioned by John Damascene (PG 94, 728)." (The Marian
Library/International Marian Research Institute, Roman Catholic
commentary)
3. Collyridlans. Under this name Epiphanius (Haer. 79) assails certain
women who had brought from Thrace into Arabia the practice of performing
on
certain days rites in honour of the Blessed Virgin, the chief being the
offering of a cake, and the partaking of it by the worshippers. Epiphanius
condemns their conduct because (a) women ought not to offer sacrifice, and
(b)
Mary is to be honoured, God only to be worshipped. The name Collyris (or
kindred forms) is to be found in the LXX translation of Lev. vii. 12,
viii. 26
; 2 Sam. vi. rg, xiii. 68 ; and the word passed thence into the Latin
versions.
[G.s.] (A dictionary of Christian biography and literature to the end of
the
sixth century a.d., Henry Wace, Collyridians)
Conclusion:
1. There is no way for Muslims today to escape the fact that the Koran
indeed contains a major theological blunder. If the Koran was really
written by
God, as Muhammad claimed, then the worship of Mary would have been
condemned,
but she would never have been connected with the trinity.
2. Modern Muslim apologists cannot explain away this problem because we
have documented above, many earlier Muslims commentators indeed admitted
the
Koran viewed Mary as part of the trinity. Suggesting this is not the case,
is
another example of Muslims both rewriting their own history, as well as
ignoring the universal facts of history. But what would you expect from a
religion founded upon myths.
3. Muslims worshipped Mary as one of 360 pagan gods in the Kabah. The
heretic sect known as Collyridlans, worshipped Mary as God. Many
Christians in
the age referred to Mary as, "mother of God" which led Muhammad to
conclude she
was a god herself.
4. Mary was never considered part of the trinity and such a teaching
represented a small heretic sect in Arabia.
5. While today, Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches outright worship
Mary, pray to her, praise her and call her "Mother of God", such was not
the
case during the time of Muhammad. Even so, Roman Catholics and Orthodox
would
violently oppose any idea that Mary, although they worship her, is part of
the
Trinity in any way. They have never defined trinity as anything but
consisting
of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
6. Muhammad wrote the Koran and formed his beliefs based upon his local
environment to which he was exposed. The fact that historically, trinity
has
always been defined as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Go to Trinity in the Bible website.
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