Their Third Argument—Use of the Term ‘Son of Allah’

The third argument—For the Messiah, peace be on him, being God, or the Son of God is the expression, son of Allah, that has been mentioned in Divine revelation with respect to Christ. The Christians say that the one who is the Son of Allah will necessarily be One in being with his Father.

The rebuttal—It is really very clear from the phrases given below that the expression son or son of Allah—as used in the Torah, the Gospels, and their supplements—connotes a rather broad range of meanings. If you wish to see the phrases containing ‘son’, take note of:

• The Jews are the sons of Jerusalem—(Matthew 23:37);

• The Jews are the children of Jerusalem—(Luke 19:44);

• The people are the sons of the Resurrection—(Luke 20:36);

• Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day— (1 Thessalonians 5:5);

• Ye are of your father the devil—( John 8:44);

• The son of perdition—( John 17:12); and

• The Jews are the sons of serpents—(Matthew 23:33).

Given the manner in which the word son has been applied at these places with a specific meaning and context, why isn’t the expression son of Allah understood in the same manner?

Now I will document those phrases in which the specific expression son of Allah has been applied in a vast—yes, indeed, a tremendously vast—context within the holy scriptures:

1. Adam, peace be upon him, the son of God—(Luke 3:38)

2. Seth, peace be upon him, the son of God—(Genesis 6:2)

3. Israel, peace be upon him, the son of God—(Exodus 4:22)

4. Ephraim the firstborn of God—Jeremiah 31:9, 20; for him, the bowels of God were troubled

5. David, peace be upon him, the elder son of God— (Psalms 89:26, 27)

6. Solomon, peace be upon him, the son of God— (1 Chronicles 22:9, 10; 28:6)

7. Judges and those who issue religious edicts, the sons of God—(Psalms 82:6)

8. All the Children of Israel, the sons of God—(Romans 9:4; Deuteronomy 14:1, 32:19)

9. All the disciples, the sons of God—(1 John 3:2)

10. All Christians, indeed, all believers, the sons of God— (1 John 3:9)

11. All orphans, the sons of God—(Psalms 68:5)

12. All distinguished and ordinary people, the sons of God— (Matthew 6:6, 18; 7:11; Genesis 6:4)

13. Nobles, the sons of God—(Genesis 6:2)

14. Rebellious children—(Isaiah 30:1)

In all these places, the expression son of Allah has been spoken in regard to righteous and virtuous people, or regarding those for whom there are few means of training in the world, or regarding the noble and princely, or regarding all people—and in every one of these places, all the sons of Allah are simply the mere creations of God. Not a single one of them is an embodiment of God. All are mere mortals and the progeny of mortals.1 Not one from among them is God.

Accordingly, on account of these phrases and expressions, if Christ, the son of Allah, is also a mere mortal and not God, then what word or phrase obliges us to understand son of Allah to mean the embodiment of God when it comes to the case of Christ, yet when the same phrase son of Allah is applied to others, we take it to simply mean a human being or the son of a human being? No ‘son of Allah’ expression is unequivocally proven to signify an embodiment of God, whereas Christ being the son of a mortal is proven from the following expressions:

• Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham— (Matthew 1:1)

• Christ is the Son of man—(Matthew 8:20)

• He is the son of Adam, a man—(Matthew 9:6)

• Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?—(Matthew 16:13)

• The Son of man came eating and drinking and they say, Behold a man gluttonous, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners—(Matthew 11:19)

• Is not this the carpenter’s son?—(Matthew 13:55)

And it is established from the Gospels that Christ was the son of man and, likewise, the Christians do not deny that Christ was the son of man, but they simultaneously claim this as well, that this son of man was in reality that very God. When he entered his physical body, that very individual was called the Son of Allah.

From this much detail, it has at least become clear that to refer to Christ as son of Allah, the literal meaning of ‘son’ is not meant because in that case it becomes necessary that Christ should issue forth from the sperm of God, and that Mary the Ever Truthful become the wife of God. Otherwise, these meanings are incorrect and blatantly wrong. Neither the Muslims nor the Christians believe Mary to be the wife of God; indeed, no intelligent person would consider such a thing to be permissible and, thus, the literal meaning of son of Allah and its universally accepted meaning would not be intended. On the contrary, the meaning of this expression the son of Allah would be something else and beyond the universally accepted literal meaning.

Mark 15:39 records that Christ was the Son of Allah, and in place of this verse, Luke 23:47 records that Christ was eminent and virtuous and righteous; that is to say, instead of ‘Son of Allah’, calls him eminent. Thus, I claim that wherever Christ referred to himself as the son of Allah, there he meant it in the sense of eminence and not in the sense of the embodiment of God.

What argument exists on account of which we are obliged to concede that by ‘Christ, the son of Allah’ is meant the embodiment of God? Quite the contrary, what does the phrase son of Allah have to do with righteousness and Divinity? It is not even necessary to apply the meaning of an ordinary believer for the reason that even evil-doers are the sons of God, Isaiah—30:1.

In short, it is not proven that Christ was the embodiment of God through the phrase son of Allah. For further clarification, I advise pondering over these following verses:

• Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God… Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him—(1 John 3:1–2)

• And in 1 John 4:7 it is said: And every one that loveth is born of God.

• And in 1 John 3:9 there is: Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest.

• To Titus, mine own son after the common faith—(Titus 1:4)

• That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose— (Genesis 6:2)

Ponder over these prominent verses—do any of them have the slightest indication that son of Allah gives the meaning of the embodiment of God? No, not at all.