3.10 Jesus Could Not Be Separated From the Father and the Holy Spirit

 

Muslims conclude that, if what Christian scholars and theologians say is true, that the Son is ‘one’ with the Father and the Holy Spirit because of their sameness of substance, essence or nature (al-Dzat), that the Son is the image of the Invisible Father on earth, that the Son did not exist with the Father and the Holy Spirit side by side in the Divine world, that whoever sees the Son also sees the Father, that the Son is not separate nor subordinate to the Father or the Holy Spirit, but is wholly in the Father and the Holy Spirit it seems that Jesus Christ is at the same time attached to the Father and the Holy Spirit altogether (Jesus + Father + Holy Spirit) because of they contain one another. 

 In this contention, Imam Taqi al-Din Ahmad Ibn Taimiyyah[1] (1263-1328 C.E), the grand Sheikh of Islam, who works “Al-Jawab al-Sahih Li-Man Baddala Din al-Masih (The Correct Answer To Those Who Changed The Religion of Christ) is among the masterpieces of Muslim polemic against Christianity states that: 

“They (the Christians) claim that the Word of God—His Knowledge—which has united with Christ…it must be answered that Knowledge is an attribute not separable from the Knower, nor from the other attribute which is Life. It is impossible that the Knowledge of God could be united with Christ without His Essence or without His Life.” [2] 

Ibn Taimiyyah statement is parallel to the statements made by Christian theologians themselves. Theophilus of Antioch (d.180 C.E), one of the Church Fathers when he was asked whether God’s Knowledge was removed from Him when He sent it to earth in the form of Jesus states: 

“…when God put forth his Word and His Wisdom He did not empty Himself of them but ‘is forever’ conversing with His Word.”[3]