Absolutely. The Koran condemns those who consider
Christ divine: ‘‘In blasphemy indeed are those that say that
Allah is Christ the son of Mary’’ (Sura 5:17). Yet at the
same time, Jesus is called the ‘‘Word of Allah’’ several
times in the Koran: ‘‘The angel said, ‘Mary, Allah makes an
announcement to you of a word from himself whose name
is the Messiah, Jesus son of Mary, outstanding in this world
and the next, and one of those drawn near’ ’’ (Sura 3:45).
And again in Sura 4:171: ‘‘The Messiah, Jesus son of Mary,
is only a messenger of Allah and a word which He projected
to Mary, and a spirit from Himself.’’
Related to this is a hint of the Christian doctrine that
Jesus is the New Adam: ‘‘The similitude of Jesus before
Allah is as that of Adam; He created him from dust, then
said to him: ‘Be.’ And he was’’ (Sura 3:59).
Islamic theologians throughout the history of Islam
have denied that the term ‘‘Word of Allah,’’ as it is applied
to Jesus in the Koran, implies divinity. In line with Sura
3:59, Muslims limit the meaning of a Divine ‘‘Word’’ to a
command of Allah for something to come into existence.
Yet in so limiting the meaning, Muslims commit a basic
linguistic error. Kelimais the word used of Jesus as the Word
of Allah, but kelima does not mean ‘‘command’’ in Arabic.
The word for command isamr; kelima never has this
meaning.
Muslim theologians, though, refuse to face the clear
alternative explanation: that the term is a fragment of
Christian theology and can only be explained with reference