Response to Sam Shamouns video on Quran 4 171
10th November 2023
(A brother was sent a video wherein an infamous christian apologist claims that the Quran says Jesus is more than a man or divine because of 4 171)
Before getting into the response it helps to recognise the Christian speaker in question. He is someone who is known to be quite insulting and without any real academic standing. Thus he will not debate any qualified Muslim debater of which there are many. Rather you will see him talking to people who claim to be Muslim and using arguments that have been debunked ad nauseum by Muslims for the last few centuries. This video is no different.
Verse 171 of Surah 4 is actually there to show the Christians that Jesus is not God. That is why it clearly says “Verily the Messiah, Jesus the son of Mary is only a messenger”. It also states that the only God is Allah and that the trinity is completely false. Yet Christians will ignore all that and focus, as in this video, on one part of the verse.
That part is the one where Allah ﷻ says that Esa (عليه السلام) is a word cast from Allah and a soul from Him. The Christian methodology is to assume that this must mean he is somehow not human because he is the word and spirit of God. Let us examine that claim.
Quran 3:8 details the way we as Muslims interpret the Quran. Allah ﷻ says that within the Quran there are verses that are extremely clear and can only be interpreted in one way. And then there are others that require a scholar to explain. The first type should be the go-to verses and the second type should be understood in light of the first.
In the case at hand we have multiple, explicit verses clearly stating Jesus is a prophet and not God such as 5:75. In 5 72 Allah ﷻ even says that the one who says Jesus is God has committed kufr. In 3 47 Allah ﷻ clearly explains that He created Esa (عليه السلام). The verses go on and on. These are clear explicit verses that teach us that Jesus is a human being and a messenger and not God.
Let’s now go to the more complex part that the video was bringing up. Allah ﷻ states that Jesus is a soul from him. What this means is that since Jesus was conceived with no father, but only through the action of Allah, he is called a soul from Allah. In reality we are all souls from Allah. In fact this term is even used for Adam (عليه السلام) 15 29, wherein Allah ﷻ says he blew into Adam (عليه السلام) His soul. The fact that he calls it “His soul” does not mean it is a part of Allah. It is similar to how we say baytullah, the house of Allah. This in no way implies that Allah lives in it or anything of the sort. Just that it belongs to Him. Even though, in reality, every house belongs to him, the masaajid are even more so because no one else stays there. In a very similar manner, even though we are all technically a soul from Allah, because in the case of Adam and Esa (عليه السلام) there was no human intervention, this term was used for them.
And yes, we all existed as souls before our human bodies. The Quran discusses this in 7 172.
I hope from the above it becomes clear not only how ignorant these Christians are, but rather how disingenuous they are. The responses to these objections are found all over the internet, yet they pretend as though it is something they’ve come up with.
The last issue is with respect to Esa (عليه السلام) being called the a word from Allah. As we know from the Quran, Allah ﷻ creates via the word kun (be), in 2:118 and many other places. Generally when Allah creates something, for example a fruit from a tree, there are natural processes behind it as well. However in the case of Esa (عليه السلام) there was no father and so it was purely the act of creation of Allah, therefore he is called a word (kun) from Allah. In reality we are all words from God, but in our case there were natural processes involved, like the coming together of our parents. This is a common theme in Quran and Hadith, wherein a person is given a special title although it can apply to others as well. Think of Musa (عليه السلام) who is called kaleemulllah, the one who spoke to Allah. All the ambiya communicated with Allah ﷻ. But because Musa (عليه السلام) did so without an intermediary, this became his title. The same applies to Esa (عليه السلام) in the case of Kalima (word) and to him and Adam (عليه السلام) for ruh (soul).
This was actually the summarized answer, but here’s a summary of it.
1. The Quran explicitly states in many places that Jesus is not God but rather a human. These verses are explicit.
2. The verse in question denies his divinity as well.
3. We all existed as souls before our bodies.
4. Adam (عليه السلام) is also called a soul from Allah. It just means that he has no father and mother.
5. Esa (عليه السلام) is called the word because his creation was due purely to the word kun and not due to any natural processes.
6. Almost all Christian objections are weak and devoid of any real substances
(As an after thought, it would also be nice to mention that the bible claims that Mechisedek had no beginning or end, no father or mother(Hebrews 7:3). Do christians think he is divine?)