With these clear statements of Sura 4, An – Nisa, aya 171, we start our study of the false claim of Jesus’ sonship to God. Allah rejects any such claim. In Sura 5, Al – Maida, aya 17, He says: 

“Those have already disbelieved who say, Allah is the Messiah, the son of Mary. Say: Who has any authority from Allah, if he would like to destroy the Messiah, son of Mary, and his mother, and all who are on earth?…”

These words unambiguously clarify the undeniable and unsuperable difference between the creator and His creation. Allah is powerful, we are powerless. Even the most honored amongst His creatures, like prophets or angels, depend on Him and are not too proud to serve Him. 

“Neither does the Messiah scorn to be a slave of Allah nor the near-drawn angels….” is stated in Sura 4, An – Nisa, aya 172.

That man’s relation to his creator can only be one of dependency and minor importance, and that he can no way feel presumptions against Him, is expressed in very clear terms in Job. Job 15. 14-15 says:

“What is man, that he can be clean? Or he that is born of a woman, that he can be righteous? Behold, God puts no trust in his holy ones, and the heavens are not clean in his sight.”

Thus also Job 14.4 reminds us that who is born a human cannot claim to be of godly nature and pure:

“Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? There is not one.”

The proper English rendering of this verse should be “Can there emerge someone clean from unclean? There is not one” . Job 25 4.6 contains the same message: 

“how can man be righteous before God? How can he who is born of woman be clean? Behold, even the moon is not bright and the starts are not clean in his sight: how much less man, who is a maggot, and the son of a man, who is a worm!” 

It is, however, true that the Bible mentions sons of God or even gods. We do not intend to examine all the quotations given below as a good part of it does not at all suit the clearness of a revealed religion, and rather originates from defected human fantasy. For example, we read in Genesis (1^st book of Moses) 6.1-4: 

“When men began to multiply on the face of the ground, and daughters were born to them, the sons of God, saw that the daughters of men were fair; and they took to wife such of them as they chose. ‘The Nephilm were on the earth in those days, and also afterwards, when the sons of God came into the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men that were of old, the men of renown”

What is significant to us is that the term “son of God” is quite common in the Bible, and does not appear only in connection with Jesus. Mostly it means nothing but a righteous, god fearing person who walks in the ways of God. This is clearly shown in a comparison of Matthew 27.54 and Luke 23.47 In Matthew 27.54 we are told: 

“When the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled with awe, and said, "Truly this was the Son of God!" 

In Luke 23.47, the same story renders as follows: 

Now when the centurion saw what had taken place, he praised God, and said, "Certainly this man was innocent!"

In the light of this context we will now have a look at all those manifold Biblical verses which deal with gods and sons of god.

Exodus (2^nd book of Moses) 4.16 says about Aaron:

“He shall speak for you to the people; and he shall be a mouth for you, and you shall be to him as God.”

Here, God describes the relationship of order and obedience between Moses and Aaron. Surely, He does not associate anyone as another god alongside with Himself, after He had ordered before not to take anyone as god but him only. John 10. 33-36 also does not leave any doubt that these kind of expressions are not to be taken literally: 

“The Jews answered him, "It is not for a good work that we stone you but for blasphemy; because you, being a man, make yourself God. Jesus answered them, "Is it not written in your law, 'I said, you are gods'? If he called them gods to whom the word of God came (and scripture cannot be broken), do you say of him whom the Father consecrated and sent into the world, 'You are blaspheming,' because I said, 'I am the Son of God'?”

Considering that quite a large number of verses talk about other messengers and those whom they were sent to as “sons of god”, it is unreasonable to build the dogma of trinity on the very few occasions in the New Testament which mention Jesus as a “son of god”. For example, we find in Exodus (2^nd Book of Moses) 4.22: 

“And you shall say to Pharaoh, 'Thus says the LORD, Israel is my first-born son,”

About David is said in Psalm 89. 16-27 

“He shall cry to me, ‘Thou art my father, my God, and the rock of my salvation’. And I will make him the firstborn, the highest of the kings on the earth.”

Then, Jeremiah 31.9:

“…for I am a father to Israel, and E’phraim is my first – born.”

The sentence in 1^st Chronicles 17.13 which Christian theologians like to relate to Jesus, in fact is related to Salomo, as it is proven by the same sentence in 2^nd Samuel 7.14:

“I will be his father, and he shall be my son.”

More obvious this becomes in 1^st Chronicles 22.9-10:

“Behold a soon shall be born to you; he shall be a man of peace. I will give him peace from all his enemies round about; for his name shall be Salomon, and I will give peace and quiet to Israel in his days. He shall build a house for my name. He shall be my son, and I will be his father, and I will establish his royal throne in Israel for ever.”

So far we have Israel, David, E’phraim, and Salomon amongst the “Sons of god”. In Deuteronomy (5^th Book of Moses) 14.1 the whole of the believers is added:

"You are the sons of the LORD your God”

and in Deuteronomy 32. 5-6  the disbelievers and mischief – makers are exempted:

“They have dealt corruptly with him, they are no longer his children because of their blemish; they are a perverse and crooked generation. Do you thus requite the LORD, you foolish and senseless people? Is not he your father, who created you, who made you and established you?”

This should already be enough to clarify the meaning of “son of god” in biblical use. Still we want to add three more citations from the Old Testament: Isaiah 45 11-12 

“Thus says the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker: "Will you question me about my children, or command me concerning the work of my hands?I made the earth, and created man upon it; it was my hands that stretched out the heavens, and I commanded all their host.”

Isaiah 64.8:

“Yet, O LORD, thou art our Father; we are the clay, and thou art our potter; we are all the work of thy hand.”

 And finally, Psalm 82.6-7 which makes clear that notwithstanding the honourable name given to the creation, the fact of dependency from the creator has not at all altered:

“I say, "You are gods, sons of the Most High, all of you; nevertheless, you shall die like men, and fall like any prince."

In the New Testament, as well, “god’s sons” or “gods children” is an honoring title for god’s creation. So in Matthew 5.9:

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God”

A statement that doubtless means all of mankind. There is no specific “fatherhood” of God to anyone. God is the One who cares and caters for everyone. Only in this particular sense, He is called a father in the New Testament, such in Matthew 5.16: 

“Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”

A close look into the gospels does not leave any doubts that Jesus who most of the time is called “son of man” has been God’s messenger, but besides that was a man like anyone else.

Matthew 8.20 shows this fact:

“And Jesus said to him, "Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man has nowhere to lay his head."

Matthew 27.46, a sentence that can hardly be authentic, also expresses the powerlessness of the created in relation to the creator, and makes, should we consider it a sound transmission, any kind of unity between god and Jesus, between the mighty and the mightless, completely impossible: “Eli Eli la’ma sabac-tha’ni?” that is, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” Matthew 6.24 admonishes, “No one can serve two masters.” Therefore we can read in Matthew 10.24-25:

"A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master; it is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher, and the servant like his master. “

Thus man can try, realizing the mercy of Allah, to be merciful, or, realizing the mercy of Allah, to be merciful, or, realizing His kindness, to be kind, and so on, he can try to make an effort to adopt some of the good qualities of his master, but still his master will never cease to be far above him. To do such an effort we are encouraged in Matthew 5.48: “You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”  Still, no one after listening to this demand would claim divine perfectness for himself. Jesus, too, never did so. To the contrary, he protested against any such association and gave admonition to the people not to praise him, but he One Who sent him. In Sura 5, Al – Maida, aya 116, we find this witnessed on the Day of Judgment:

“When Allah said, O Jesus, son of Mary, did you say to men, take me and my mother as gods beside Allah? He said glorified you are, it is not for me to say what I have no right to say.”

In Matthew 10.40 we are reported that Jesus said to his disciples:

“He who receives you receives me, and he who receives me receives him who sent me.”

The parallel structure of the sentence shows that he makes between Allah and him as a messenger just as much of a difference as between Allah and him as a messenger just as much of a difference as between him and his disciples. According, to the gospel he orders his disciples in Matthew 23.8-9:

“But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all brethren. And call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven.”

People, however, did not see and could not understand Jesus’ works. They twisted things and made him a god. This is in fact witnessed in Luke 8.39:

"Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you." And he went away, proclaiming throughout the whole city how much Jesus had done for him.”

Jesus himself forbade the people to give such a false claim concerning him. Luke 9.20-21 points to this effect:

And he said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" And Peter answered, "The Christ of God." But he charged and commanded them to tell this to no one,

On the first instance the text is confusing. Why should Jesus prohibit the people from telling the truth? This would not agree with the courage of one’s convictions asked for in Matthew 10.26-36. The matter becomes more plain reading the same words in the rendering of Matthew 16.16. There, the answer given to Jesus is: “You are the Christ, the son of the living God.” So he forbade them to make such a false claim. However, I think these verses deal with a subject completely different, namely the question who is the promised last prophet; he forbade to those who claimed that it was him to say so (Cf. the chapter prophecies on the seal of prophethood, Muhammad – peace be upon him) As in Mark 8.27-30 there is quite a lot of confusion who Jesus really is (also Cf. Matthew 22.41-46)

Whatever the case, Jesus has warned the people of his time not to say anything about him but the truth, that he is nothing but a messenger of God. Yet another example for this is provided in Luke 11.27-28:

"As he said this, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to him, "Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts that you sucked!" But he said, "Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!"

This openly tells against the Mary worship mainly spread in catholic areas. In protestant homelands Muslims have been challenged to have misunderstood trinity as a triple of God, Jesus and Mary, whereas it is supposed to be a triple of God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. Many catholic teachings, however, within their dogmas give more importance to Mary than to the Holt Spirit. A large part of Roman Catholics has always adored and worshipped her as the “mother of god”.

Many other passages proof that Jesus did not teach his divine but his human nature. In John 5.30 he is told to have said:

"I can do nothing on my own authority; as I hear, I judge; and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me.”

Likewise in John 7 16-18:

“So Jesus answered them, "My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me;If any man's will is to do his will, he shall know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority. He who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory; but he who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and in him there is no falsehood.”

John 7.28 makes the trinity an absurdity, as there Jesus says:

“So Jesus proclaimed, as he taught in the temple, "You know me, and you know where I come from? But I have not come of my own accord; he who sent me is true, and him you do not know.”

Thus does John 8 41-43, which also conveys to us Jesus’ anger about the people misunderstanding him:

You do what your father did." They said to him, "We were not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God." Jesus said to them, "If God were your Father, you would love me, for I proceeded and came forth from God; I came not of my own accord, but he sent me. Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word.

In John 13.16 he emphasizes the difference between god Who sent him and himself, the servant of god:

“Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master; nor is he who is sent greater than he who sent him.”

This difference between god and messenger we also find present in John 17 .3-5:

“And this is eternal life, that they know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. I glorified thee on earth, having accomplished the work which thou gavest me to do; and now, Father, glorify thou me in thy own presence with the glory which I had with thee before the world was made.”

Evidently Jesus kept the order of the Old Testament given in Hosea 13.4:

“I am the Lord your god from the land of Egypt: you know no God but me, and besides me there is no saviour”

He does not fall into temptation to make himself a god, this being witnessed in Matthew 4.10 (and Luke 4.8)

“Then Jesus said to him, ‘Begone, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve’.”

People, however, do not understand his words and act in his name instead of in the name of him who sent him; John 15.20-21

“Remember the word that I said to you, 'A servant is not greater than his master.' If they persecuted me, they will persecute you; if they kept my word, they will keep yours also. But all this they will do to you on my account, because they do not know him who sent me.”

In Matthew 7 21-23, Jesus explicitly renounces all those who do so:

“Not every one who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?' And then will I declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you evildoers.”

His anger concerning that is also expressed in Luke 6.46:

“Why do you call me 'Lord, Lord,' and not do what I tell you?”

The claim of Jesus’ sonship to God is, as we see, a mere invention of the church neither based soundly on the Old nor on the New Testament. Let us listen what the Qur’an says about it (Sura 9, At-Tauba, aya 30):

“And the Jews say, Ezra is the son of God, and the Christians say, the Messiah is the son of God; this is what they utter with their mouths….”

In Sura 112, Al – Ihlas, Allah teaches us the truth:

“Say, He, Allah, is one, Allah is the Ever-supreme, He did not beget nor was He begotten, and none is equal to Him”

[Next: The claim of Jesus' Crucifiction ]