CHRISTIANITY through the lens of CHRISTIAN & MUSLIM SCHOLARS Part One

4.6 The answer of Imam ar- Razi:

Another great Muslim theologian, Imam Fakhruddeen Muhammad Ibn Umar ar- Razi (1150-1209 C.E)[1] had a debate on the question of the Trinity with a Christian priest.. He reported it under his commentary of the Holy Quran under the comments on Surah AL-Nisa'. He says:

“When I was in Khawarizm, I was told that a Christian had come there who claimed to have deep knowledge of Christianity. I went to him and a debate started between us…

The priest answered that he did not claim that Christ was a Prophet but believed him to be God. I told him that first we should have the definition of God. We all know that God must be self-existent, the first and prime cause, and beyond physical description. However, we find that Jesus had a human form, was born, and did not exist before, and then was apparently killed by the Jews.

In the beginning he was a child and gradually grew into a youth. He needed food to live and used to eat and drink, and had all the characteristics of a human being. It is obvious that an accidental being cannot be self-existent, and one who is subject to change cannot be eternal and everlasting.

Secondly, your claim is wrong on the ground that you say that Jesus was arrested by the Jews and then was crucified. He also made every effort to run away in order to save himself. He tried to hide himself before his arrest and then, before his death, he cried aloud. Now if he was God, or a part of God that was united with the God-head or God was in him, why could he not save himself from this persecution, and punish them for such a sacrilegious act. His weeping and crying, making efforts to hide himself, is just as inconceivable. We are really surprised at how a man with ordinary commonsense could ever believe something which is so evidently irrational and contrary to human reason?

Thirdly, your hypothesis is impossible because we must agree with one of three logical possibilities in this matter. Either God was the same Christ who was visible to the people in human form, or God was fully united with him or some part of God was united to him. All three possibilities are equally irrational and logically impossible. The first because if the creator of the universe was Jesus, it would require that God of the universe was crucified by the Jews, in this case the existence of this universe would have ceased. The God of the universe being killed by the Jews, who are the most in considered and disregarded nation of the world, is all the more ironical and unimaginable. He must be a most helpless God indeed.

The second possibility is also unacceptable, because if God is not a body…his presence and unification with form and body is rationally not possible …The Bible itself states that “God is not a man, that he should lie, He is not a human, that he should change his mind” (Numbers 23:19, NLT)

The third possibility that some parts of God were united with Jesus is also absurd because if those parts were vital for God, it would require that God would have been without some of his vital parts after they were united with Jesus, and God would no longer be perfect. If those parts were not vital and God would lose nothing without them, such parts could not be parts of God.”[2]

The Divinity and the Humanity of Jesus who Suffered Death

[1] He was the preeminent scholar of his time in Islamic Sciences, as well as logic and philosophy. His famous work is his eight volume commentary on the Quran, which is entitled Mafateeh al-Ghaib but which became known as at-Tafsir al-Kabir. Among his other published works are Lawaami’ al Bayyinat, Maa’lim Usool ad-Deen, al Masa’il al-Khamsah and Nihayah al Eejaz fi Dirayah al-Ijaaz

[2] Izharul Haq, Part 3, 283-285 (emphasis are mine)