His Messengers. Say not ‘Three!’ Cease! Better for you, for
Allah is One. Glory be to Him above having a Son’’ (Sura
4:171). And again: ‘‘They do blaspheme who say: ‘Allah is
one of three in a Trinity,’ for there is no god except One
God’’ (Sura5:73).
Since these and other Koranic passages suggest that
Christians worship three gods, most Muslims assume this to
be true, and dismiss Christian denials as stemming from
dishonesty or ignorance.
The Muslim conception of monotheism is thus closer to
the Jewish concept of God than to that of Christianity. All
three religions acknowledge the unity and transcendence of
God; however, for Jews and Muslims, God is an absolute
unity. Because of the doctrines of the Trinity and the
divinity of Christ, many Muslims believe that they, along
with the Jews, are monotheists, while Christians are
polytheists.
This idea is related to the Muslim belief that Islam was
the original religion of Abraham and the other patriarchs,
and that Jews and Christians later corrupted this pure
religion.
- Why do Muslims claim Abraham was the first
Muslim?
Muslims consider Abraham to be the first and in many
ways the greatest example of faith, as do Christians and
Jews, but Muslims also use the figure of Abraham to
position themselves as the legitimate spiritual heirs of the