The original author's response to Randy Desmond's reply below.

Muslim Response by Randy Desmond
Date: Thursday, 27 Feb 1997

This proposed internal contradiction (that Allah has a son) is so outside the scope of logical deduction, that I am compelled to refute this section-by-section (and line-by-line where necessary).

Additionally, I have made the text which I am responding to smaller than my response. The purspose of this is to distinguish the response from the original argument and highlight the response as opposed to the origianl text (which can be seen in the normal font elsewhere anyway).

Who is the Father of Jesus?

ANSWER: No one. (to be expounded upon by refuting any claims that God is)

Is Jesus the son of Allah? The Qur'an says no. Yet it is also entirely consistent with the Qur'an to consider Allah the Father of Jesus for the following reasons:

1) Allah caused Mary to become pregnant with Jesus
2) Allah determined some of the physical characteristics of Jesus
3) All of the genetic characteristics of Jesus were determined by just two parties: Allah and Mary.

Let me say that (1) is a justified claim, (2) and (3) are questionable because God shapes everyone according to His will as He pleases. I personally do not know "how" God made Mary pregnant - but I guess you know! Did God turn Mary's egg into an embryo directly, or did He create a sperm to fertilize it, or did He just put an embryo there without Mary's egg or a created sperm? Tell me if you really know!

A Muslim might argue "Being a father implies having sex", and therfore Allah cannot be the father. No. Modern science has brought us "test tube babies", which are conceived without any sex.

The key word there is "might". I, as a Muslim, think it would take sperm from a man to fertilize an egg from a women in order for there to be two biological parents. God is not a biological parent because God is NOT a biological being. God is uncreated. Anyway, where do the test tube sperms come from? Or did you think they created a sperm in the lab?! And why don't you worship these test-tube babies since they don't have a father or mother (according to your logic anyway)?

There is nothing to support the idea that if Allah wants a baby, he must resort to normal human means to have one.

Correct. So if you are saying God is not a biological parent, fine. What kind of parent is he? A metaphorical one? Well, we know that's how the Bible describes God often. Remeber God calls Israel His first born (according to the Bible)? Is God then the parent? And yet Israel came from biological parentage! Or do you claim that Israel's parentage is a metaphorical parantage and Jesus(pbuh)'s is literal?

Again, a Muslim may say that if we are going to call Jesus the son of Allah, then we should say that Adam is the son of Allah too. No, because Adam popped into existence without a mother. We cannot compare Adam to Jesus this way.

Then what is the difference between the creation of Adam and Jesus which makes Adam not a Son of God and Jesus a Son of God? Is your answer, "because Jesus's mother was a creation of God therefore Jesus is the Son of God, but since Adam had no earthly mother, Adam is not the Son of God."? Another point, it is not that Muslims say Adam is the Son of God. Read your Bible. Email me if you need the verse.

Let us first review some background material. What does the Qur'an say about how Mary became pregnant with Jesus? In Surah 3:45-49 we read:

The angels said to Mary: "Allah bids you rejoice in a word from him. His name is the Messiah, Jesus the son of Mary. He shall be noble in this world and the hereafter, and shall be favored by Allah. He shall preach to men in his cradle and the prime of manhood, and shall lead a righteous life." "Lord", she said, "how can I bear a child when no man has touched me?" He replied: "Such is the will of Allah. He creates whom He will. When He decrees a thing He need only say: 'Be' and it is. He will instruct him in the Scriptures and in wisdom, in the Torah and in the Gospel, and send him forth as an apostle to the Israelites..."

From this passage we can draw the conclusions presented above: 1) Allah caused Mary to become pregnant with Jesus. Muslims infer from this passage and others like it that Jesus was conceived while Mary was a virgin by the word spoken by Allah, and not by a man.

Muslims do not know "how" Mary was made to be pregnant with Jesus (pbuh). How she became pregnant is God's knowledge. We only know that God commanded it.

Not that this in itself implies that Allah is the father. When a doctor causes a woman to become pregnant by artificial insemination, he is not considered the father. Hence the following two points:

Good thinking! You are right. This does not imply Allah is a father.

2) Allah determined some of the physical characteristics of Jesus. When Allah said "Be", did he have something specific in mind? Certainly! Allah had a very detailed plan in mind for Jesus. In particular, Allah decided that Jesus would be male. Normally, it is the sperm that decides the gender of the baby. Here Allah made the choice instead.

3) All of the genetic characteristics of Jesus were determined by precisely two parties: Allah and Mary. This is clear because they were the only two parties involved. So we conclude that Allah and Mary are the only two possible candidates for the title "Father".

Ever hear of surrogate mothers? Perhaps mary was just that; a surrogate mother. I mean really, how do you know "how" Jesus was formed? It seems you are assuming that Mary supplied the egg and God suppled the sperm. May Allah protect us from such blasphemous thoughts!

I'm not hiding that I don't know "how" Mary became pregnant with Jesus(pbuh), and I am not pretending to know. God said "Be" and it happened. I'm just asking, "How do you know Mary's egg was part of the process? How do you know?" The truth is you don't know. Admit you don't know "how" Jesus(pbuh) was placed in the womb of Mary and be humble to your Lord, God.

Hence it appears legitimate to call Allah the father of Jesus,

No...

at least in a figurative sense.

Interesting... He is not the biological father. He does not beget children. So what kind of father is he? A metaphorical/figurative one at best! Just refer to what I said above about Israel being God's first born in the Bible. Or do you also worship Israel? Or if you think God is then a figurative father, did he then supply a figurative "sperm"? Again, may God protect us from such blasphemous thoughts!

Therefore we are at a loss to explain why the Qur'an spends so much space arguing against this.

How can you not understand this? May God make you see it. The Qur'an is an a message to straighted out the errors which the followers of previous prophets have fallen into. You may not believe it is an error, but if it was not, then there would be no reason to correct it, would there? I mean the message of the Qur'an id Guidance and part of that is pointing out the errors we should not fall victim to.

Certainly more and better justification is needed than what appears in these passages:

Surely they lie when they declare: "Allah has begotten children". - - Sura 37:151

Where is the "lie" in our reasoning above?

I have shown it. You assume two postulates ( numbers 2 and 3 above) which are assumed truths. They are nothing but conjecture and the Qur'an has mentioned that Christians follow nothing but conjecture. You can't make up your own religion. That is equivalent to worshipping Satan.

They say: "Allah has begotten a Son". Glory be to Him! His is what the heavens and the earth contain; all things are obedient to Him. Creator of the heavens and the earth! When he decrees a thing, He need only say "Be", and it is. -- Sura 2:116

Allah made Mary pregnant. What more would Allah have to do if he wanted a legitimate son?

Excuse me, but you assume God wants a son in the first place. That may be a whole other discussion, but certainly has nothing to do with a proposed inconsistency in the Qur'an. The Qur'an never says that God ever wanted a son (metaphorical or literal - whatever a "literal" son of God may mean - a'uuthu billah! I seek shelter in God from such blasphemous thoughts!).

Allah forbid that He Himself should beget a son! When He decrees a thing He need only say "Be," and it is. -- Sura 19:35

So is Allah unable to beget a son by saying "Be"?

Your wrong assumption here is that saying "Be" is the same as begetting a son. It has been shown that that is not the case. Do you doubt that? How can you doubt it, if you do? Or should I say that because God commanded all of us to "Be", we then are the children of God? Do we then worship ourselves? (I am mentioning that because that is really the point of trying to proven God has a son, isn't it? You want Muslims to become deluded and worship a creature like you do. The Qur'an is right when it says that the Jews and Christians would never be satisfied unless we follow their form of religion. Well, may God protect us from that.) Why can't Christians just understand that "son of God" and "children of God" are not literal terms, but literary devices and expressions?

Say: "If the Lord of Mercy had a son, I would be the first to worship him". -- Sura 43:82

We would prefer something more convincing from the Qu'ran than this.

That is the key comment in your post. What is it that would convince you that God did not beget a son? I mean, if it is true that God did not have a son, then what is the convincing proof you would require? What's the proof that he had a son? You seem to agree with the Qur'an's description of God's capability to create Jesus(pbuh). I mean even the Qur'an says that if the Qur'an wasn't from God there would be dicrepencies. Does your religion offer you a proof of authenticity? Is it the supposed Resurrection of Jesus? Just compare the four gospels in detail to each other, along with the book of Acts, and see if the Resurrection really happened. Go on... Do it. I dare you. Are you afraid of what you will find? How will you rationalize the inconsistencies? Is it that you have no discrepencies in your Bible? If you think so, you are deluding yourself (or Satan is deluding you). Even the maintainer of these web pages admits to those contradictions, and yet none of the proposed contradiction of the Qur'an are proven to be contradictions. That's right. None have been proven to be contradictions. If so, which ones? Be honest. Are they conclusively contradictions? Have you considered the Arabic? All contexts? All meanings? God's word (the Qur'an) is protected. Don't kid yourself.

I hope you realize you've disappointed a lot of people here. First, you attempted to find a contradiction in the Qur'an where none existed. Second, you claimed knowledge of "how" Jesus(pbuh) was formed (and that is knowledge you just don't have). Third, you used that false knowledge in trying to concoct an argument as to how Jesus could be the son of God - unsuccessfully. Lastly, you take the Qur'an and interpret it to your own desires -something the Qur'an says we can not do. So you have used the Qur'an incorrectly to try to prove something the Qur'an doesn't support based on assumed knowledge you just don't have. Do you think your arguments have any crediblity now?

Look, it is not too late to say, "hey, I made a mistake," and move on. The doors of Mercy from God are still open. If I have been harsh in my response it is because I want the message to get through. You really don't know the joy of believing in God without concocted beliefs added in by Satan until you become a Muslim. Please think about the arguments I have put forth.

Thank you for reading my response in full.

The original author's response to Randy Desmond's reply

Contradictions in the Qur'an
Answering Islam Home Page

Last edited: February 27, 1997