Does Believing That Jesus Is the Son of God Invalidate a Convert’s Islam?

Answered by Shaykh Abdul-Rahim Reasat

Question

Does believing that Jesus is the Son of God affect the validity of a convert’s Islam?

Answer

I pray you are well.

Yes, it would affect the validity of a person’s faith.

A False and Impossible Belief

The belief that Jesus is the son of God is false. It is not true, nor can it be true. Logically, it cannot be true.

Allah Most High has no children. This is affirmed in multiple places in the Quran itself. The Quran is the speech of God. Allah Most High revealed it, and everything in it is accurate and true.

If someone accepts Islam but continues to hold that Jesus is the son of God, there is a problem. Such a belief contradicts the Quran. If you hold something to be true that directly contradicts the Quran, then you are going against one of the key sources of what we believe and why we believe it, namely, revelation from God Himself.

For this reason, it would render a person’s acceptance of faith invalid.

The Logical Problem

If you reflect on it, how can Jesus, upon him be peace, be the son of God?

Every offspring is of the same species and has the same qualities as the parent. This is simply the nature of things. An amoeba splits into two cells, and both share the same qualities. Human beings do not give birth to goats, nor do goats give birth to rabbits.

There must be likeness in essence and qualities.

Jesus, upon him be peace, despite his greatness as a Messenger of Allah and as a tremendous righteous servant of God, is a human being. He has needs. He requires food, water, gravity, and air pressure, just as we do.

God cannot be like that. So how could he be the Son of God?

Additional Theological Problems

Christians also hold that he is God incarnate and the Father. This only increases the theological confusion.

Some scholars of Christianity, such as Bart Ehrman, have argued that belief in Jesus as the son of God developed historically. It is said that Paul advanced this belief within a particular historical context, at a time when other religions also claimed certain figures to be sons of God. Mithra is mentioned as one such false deity.

It is further noted that, in the Old Testament, the term “son of God” was used metaphorically to describe a religious person, not to claim actual divinity. No one claimed that God had an actual child until later developments.

The Effect on One’s Islam

If a person embraces Islam but maintains the belief that Jesus is the son of God, then their acceptance of faith is not valid, because it contradicts the Quran, which is a revelation from Allah Most High.

There are many explanations clarifying the falsity of this belief. But as it stands, holding such a belief would invalidate a person’s faith.

[Shaykh] Abdul-Rahim
Checked and Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani

Shaykh Abdul-Rahim Reasat began studying Arabic Grammar and Morphology whilst studying for a degree in English and History. After graduating, He traveled to Damascus and studied Arabic, Hanafi Fiqh, Usul al-Fiqh, Theology, and Logic with Shaykh Adnan Darwish, Shaykh ‘Abd al-Rahman Arjan al-Binsawi, Shaykh Husayn Darwish, Shaykh Muhammad Darwish, the late Shaykh Rashad Shams, and others. He then moved to Amman to continue his studies in those fields, as well as in Tafsir, Quranic Sciences, Hadith Methodology and Commentary, Prophetic Biography, Prophetic Perfections and Traits, Rhetoric, Arabic Literature, and Tajwid. His teachers include Shaykh Ali Hani, Dr. Hamza al-Bakri, Dr. Salah Abu al-Hajj, Dr. Mansur Abu Zina, Shaykh Ahmad Hasanat, Shaykh Ahmad Jammal, and others.