The Quran

171

Preface

يا أَهلَ الكِتابِ لا تَغلوا في دينِكُم وَلا تَقولوا عَلَى اللَّهِ إِلَّا الحَقَّ ۚ إِنَّمَا المَسيحُ عيسَى ابنُ مَريَمَ رَسولُ اللَّهِ وَكَلِمَتُهُ أَلقاها إِلىٰ مَريَمَ وَروحٌ مِنهُ ۖ فَآمِنوا بِاللَّهِ وَرُسُلِهِ ۖ وَلا تَقولوا ثَلاثَةٌ ۚ انتَهوا خَيرًا لَكُم ۚ إِنَّمَا اللَّهُ إِلٰهٌ واحِدٌ ۖ سُبحانَهُ أَن يَكونَ لَهُ وَلَدٌ ۘ لَهُ ما فِي السَّماواتِ وَما فِي الأَرضِ ۗ وَكَفىٰ بِاللَّهِ وَكيلًا

Yusuf Ali

O People of the Book! Commit no excesses¹ in your religion: Nor say of God aught but the truth. Christ Jesus the son of Mary was (no more than) a messenger of God, and His Word, which He bestowed on Mary, and a spirit proceeding from Him: so believe in God and His messengers. Say not “Trinity” : desist:² 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.

Just as a foolish servant may go wrong by excess of zeal for his master, so in religion people’s excesses may lead them to blasphemy or a spirit the very opposite of religion. The Jewish excesses in the direction of formalism, racialism, exclusiveness, and rejection of Christ Jesus have been denounced in many places. Here the Christian attitude is condemned, which raises Jesus to an equality with God; in some cases venerates Mary almost to idolatry; attributes a physical son to God; and invents the doctrine of the Trinity, opposed to all reason, which according to the Athanasian Creed, unless a man believes, he is doomed to hell forever. Let our Muslims also beware lest they fall into excesses either in doctrine or in formalism, (Cf. 11:110).
Christ’s attributes are mentioned: (1) that he was the son of a woman, Mary, and therefore a man; (2) but a messenger, a man with a mission from God, and therefore entitled to honour; (3) a Word bestowed on Mary, for he was created by God’s word “Be” (kun), and he was; 3:59; (4) a spirit proceeding from God, but not God: his life and his mission were more limited than in the case of some other Messengers, though we must pay equal honour to him as a Prophet of God. The doctrines of Trinity, equality with God, and sonship, are repudiated as blasphemies. God is independent of all needs and has no need of a son to manage His affairs. The Gospel of John (whoever wrote it) has put in a great deal of Alexandrian and Gnostic mysticism round the doctrine of the Word (Greek, Logos), but it is simply explained here. (R).