This is an effort to understand the Islamic conundrum of the Biblical Trinity and address their objections. Muslims have this idea of God fixated into their mind by their mullahs. So however you try to make them understand, they will come back to the SQUARE ONE and argue back as if they did not understand. It always comes back to a Unitarian vs Trinitarian tug of war.
The Unitarian Muslim always tries to insert an Islamic square peg into a round hole. So let us cut the clutter of the Islamic conundrum of the Biblical Trinity. In the process, we will cut away the edges which are the cause for their deviated thought thereby forcing God into their box.
The ignorant among the Muslims will shout and tell that the word “TRINITY” is not there in the Bible or 1+1+1=1 is not logical for them etc. Sadly such people are the ones who miss out on logical thinking. They have pawned their brains to Allah and Muhammad. Hence the thinking capacity is lost. They do not understand that the Terminology of TRINITY is a human word for expressing the Concept we see throughout the Christian Scriptures. Without using the word TRINITY, we will spend much time explaining our beliefs, just as I am writing this article.
Table of Contents
Knowing God
The Bible says that we would be able to understand the creator when we see the creation. Moreover, the invisible qualities of God can be seen through the creation.
For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.
Romans 1:20
The Story of the LEAF
By default, when I mention LEAF, you might possibly think of something like the one mentioned in the below picture.
But If I ask you to think a little more, you might be able to think of all the below ones as well. Surely you will realize that a leaf is not as simple as you thought. A Botany student would easily classify the one above as a SIMPLE LEAF. However, there are COMPOUND LEAVES too. Would you be able to identify the compound leaves from the ones shown below?
Let us consider the palm leaf. The palm leaf has one central midrib with multiple leaflets. Each leaflet has an individuality. However, the whole is A LEAF. We do not call it LEAVES in plural just because a Muslim considers each leaflet as a leaf. Similar is the Christian Concept of God. Each leaflet is equivalent to a person in the Trinity. We do not call the Trinity as GODS in the plural. All three form the BEING whom we call GOD. The Islamic concept is strictly UNITARIAN (Simple Leaf). As they have been forcing God into their box, the Christian TRINITARIAN (Compound Leaf) concept is unfathomable to them.
One God Three Persons
When we read the bible, just as in the case of the Compound Leaf, we get to know that there are 3 individuals in the same Godhead. Consider the below diagram of the LEAF as a representation.
Muslims who have lost the ability to comprehend the creation of nature needs to be constantly reminded of this picture. This has to be done repeatedly to show them what Christians believe. They may insist on their Unitarian ideology and fail to understand the Trinitarian concept. We need to keep patience and draw their attention to this leaf story. The Islamic square peg needs to be chipped off at the corners. It will take time for them to understand that the Christian doctrine of trinity is not 1+1+1=1 as they think.
Before Jesus Christ ascended to the Father, he commanded his disciples to baptize in that SINGLE NAME(YHWH) represented by the Three Persons of the Trinity.
Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the NAME of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
Matt 28:19
Notice the above scripture. The NAME is singular(It is not NAMES). However, the number of persons referred to in the sentence is Three(3) in total.
Conclusion
To assume and insist that God should redefine himself to fit into your box is a closed approach. Unfortunately, most Muslims I have encountered, have been schooled in a closed thinking environment. They quickly jump to their own conclusions and declare that the Christian Trinity is an illogical concept.
While discussing the Unitarian vs Trinitarian concept, we keep seeing definite proofs of the Triune God in both the Testaments(Old and New). Future articles of this series will deal with different aspects of this subject.
End of “Islamic conundrum of the Biblical Trinity 1“
