Use of We in Quran and Is Jesus Son of God
Question
I noticed as I was searching through the Quran on the internet that God many times refers to Himself in the WE form and I was wondering how this is reconcilled with the strict claims of monotheism by Islam.
Another question if you have time. Islam sees Jesus as a prophet and not the Son of God. What is the explaination for this? How are the many references in the New Testament reconciled by Islam? If I understand correctly from the little I've heard, Islam believes the New Testament to be greatly flawed. How do they claim to know this? Do they have other texts on Christ's life, mission etc.? Or is it simply accepted due to the fiat of a revelation to Mohamed?
Response
The word 'we' in many Semitic languages is used for a singular entity as well and in such cases it signifies respect and exalted status of the speaker. This mode of expression exists in some modern languages as well, such as Urdu. I believe translated text causes confusion in English because such a mode of expression is not seen in this language.
As for the second part of your question, I believe we should not have to provide an explanation of why Jesus (pbuh) is not a son of God, rather when someone proposes that he is a son of God, the person who proposes so must provide a reason to convince others. This is the same way that every time a prophet came to a nation, he provided reasons and proved to his people that he really was a prophet of God. As far as my understanding goes, I am of the opinion that the overall content of the Bible is devoid of any clear claim of Jesus (pbuh) to be son of God or that of one's salvation through him.
Quran, however, does discuss the issue of Jesus (pbuh) being a son of God and the concept of salvation in the Hereafter. Some of the teachings are summarized below:
- The right of worship is only that of God's. No one can share this right with Him.
- God created Adam (pbuh) without father and mother and He fashioned Jesus' (pbuh) birth in a similar way. God is Omnipotent and, therefore, He can do whatever He wants whenever He wants.
- In accordance with God's absolute Mercy and Justice, everyone will definitely be punished or rewarded for their actions on the Day of Judgment.
As for the bible, I believe that the word used for 'son' in the original languages implied a much wider connotation than the word 'son' in English. For instance, in the following verse, David (pbuh) said:
As for the flaws in the bible (both Old and New testament), I as a Muslim believe that many of those books were revealed to prophets of God over time. God says in the Quran that scholars of the time made changes to these books. Therefore this belief of mine exists primarily due to the fact that I regard Quran as the word of God, His last revelation and Muhammad (pbuh) as the last prophet who succeeded all the previous ones. This is the primary reason for Islamic belief. Present day study of history of the bible, as well as that of the bible itself also strongly convinces of this point of view.
The question, however, that needs to be addressed then is whether Quran is the book of God or not. If intellectually convinced so, then one should take it to be law from God and if not, then bible would be the book to live by. In either case, I always believe and profess that one must continue to search for truth and keep one's heart open.
I must also add that I genuinely respect all the books of Old and New Testament and I do believe that if I were living in a time before Muhammad (pbuh) I would want to live by them, taking them to be containing law from the Almighty.
To look from another angle on your first question, please note the phrase 'if I were living' in the previous paragraph, where 'were' is used in plural while the object is singular. Although different but it shows a mode of plurality in the verb similar to the plurality of noun in Semitic languages.