Do Muslims and Christians Worship the Same God?

Qur’an 29:46“Show the words of Qur’an 29:46And do not argue with the People of the Scripture except in a way that is best, except for those who commit injustice among them, and say, "We believe in that which has been revealed to us and revealed to you. And our God and your God is one; and we are Muslims [in submission] to Him."Saheeh InternationalOpen on quran.com ↗ tells Muslims to say to the People of the Scripture, “our God and your God is one.” Surah 112“Show the words of Surah 112Say, "He is Allāh, [who is] One,Saheeh InternationalOpen on quran.com ↗ says that one does not beget. A fair conversation reads both sentences.

The question

Do Muslims and Christians worship the same God? The question is easy to answer badly. One bad answer is a shrug: the names differ, the God is obviously the same, and doctrine is a detail. The other bad answer is an insult: a different god, a tribal god, a god Christians need not take seriously. Neither answer survives the texts.

Both communities confess one Creator, the God of Abraham, and both reject the worship of many gods. Christians also confess that this one God is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and that Jesus is God. The Qur’an rejects that confession. The overlap is real. The disagreement is about who God is, not about a pronunciation.

What Muslims say

Many Muslims answer yes. Allah is the God of Abraham, Moses, and Jesus. Christians and Jews are People of the Scripture. They worship that God, and they have gone wrong by associating partners with him, by calling God a father who begets, and by worshipping Jesus. On this account the God is the same and the doctrine is not. The mistake is called shirk, associating another with God, and it is the sin tawhid exists to refuse.

Some Muslims answer no. If Christians worship a trinity, or worship Jesus, they are not worshipping Allah at all. The Qur’an’s warnings against saying “three,” and against calling the Messiah the son of God, are read as a break in identity, not only as a correction of language.

Both answers appeal to the Qur’an. A Christian page should not pick the softer one and call it Islam. Tawhid and Christian monotheism is the longer account of the oneness both sides are protecting. This page stays with the question of identity: one God, or one God plus a disagreement that changes who is being worshipped.

What the Qur’an says

Saheeh International is the translation. Brackets are the translators’ words.

Qur’an 29:46“Show the words of Qur’an 29:46And do not argue with the People of the Scripture except in a way that is best, except for those who commit injustice among them, and say, "We believe in that which has been revealed to us and revealed to you. And our God and your God is one; and we are Muslims [in submission] to Him."Saheeh InternationalOpen on quran.com ↗ (1) tells believers how to speak with the People of the Scripture:

And do not argue with the People of the Scripture except in a way that is best, except for those who commit injustice among them, and say, “We believe in that which has been revealed to us and revealed to you. And our God and your God is one; and we are Muslims [in submission] to Him.”

The instruction is to say that our God and your God is one, and to say it in the best way. A Muslim who tells a Christian “we worship the same God” is quoting this verse, not inventing a courtesy. The verse also says both sides have revelation. It does not say the revelations teach the same things about God’s Son.

Qur’an 112:1–4“Show the words of Qur’an 112:1–4¹ Say, "He is Allāh, [who is] One, ² Allāh, the Eternal Refuge. ³ He neither begets nor is born, ⁴ Nor is there to Him any equivalent."Saheeh InternationalOpen on quran.com ↗ (1) is the short definition of that one:

[1] Say, “He is Allāh, [who is] One, [2] Allāh, the Eternal Refuge. [3] He neither begets nor is born, [4] Nor is there to Him any equivalent.”

One. Eternal refuge. He does not beget and is not born. None is equivalent to him. This is the chapter Muslims recite as the pure confession of tawhid. “He neither begets” is aimed at what Christians sound like when they say “Son.” Can God have a Son? answers that sentence on its own terms. Christians deny a wife and a biological child. They do not deny the Son.

Qur’an 4:171“Show the words of Qur’an 4:171O People of the Scripture, do not commit excess in your religion or say about Allāh except the truth. The Messiah, Jesus the son of Mary, was but a messenger of Allāh and His word which He directed to Mary and a soul [created at a command] from Him. So believe in Allāh and His messengers. And do not say, "Three"; desist - it is better for you. Indeed, Allāh is but one God. Exalted is He above having a son. To Him belongs whatever is in the heavens and whatever is on the earth. And sufficient is Allāh as Disposer of affairs.Saheeh InternationalOpen on quran.com ↗ (1) addresses the People of the Scripture directly:

O People of the Scripture, do not commit excess in your religion or say about Allāh except the truth. The Messiah, Jesus the son of Mary, was but a messenger of Allāh and His word which He directed to Mary and a soul [created at a command] from Him. So believe in Allāh and His messengers. And do not say, “Three”; desist - it is better for you. Indeed, Allāh is but one God. Exalted is He above having a son.

Jesus is a messenger, a word, and a spirit from God. Do not say “Three.” God is one. He is exalted above having a son. Qur’an 5:73“Show the words of Qur’an 5:73They have certainly disbelieved who say, "Allāh is the third of three." And there is no god except one God. And if they do not desist from what they are saying, there will surely afflict the disbelievers among them a painful punishment.Saheeh InternationalOpen on quran.com ↗ (1) names the saying it rejects: “They have certainly disbelieved who say, ‘Allāh is the third of three.’” The Trinity is the Christian confession those verses are often thought to describe. Christians do not say that Allah is one of three gods, or the third member of a trio. The verses are still a refusal of the Christian naming of Father, Son, and Spirit.

Qur’an 9:30“Show the words of Qur’an 9:30The Jews say, "Ezra is the son of Allāh"; and the Christians say, "The Messiah is the son of Allāh." That is their statement from their mouths; they imitate the saying of those who disbelieved before [them]. May Allāh destroy them; how are they deluded?Saheeh InternationalOpen on quran.com ↗ (1) states the Christian sentence and condemns it:

The Jews say, “Ezra is the son of Allāh”; and the Christians say, “The Messiah is the son of Allāh.” That is their statement from their mouths; they imitate the saying of those who disbelieved before [them]. May Allāh destroy them; how are they deluded?

The harsh clause is in the text. Quoting it is not an invitation to repeat it as a tone of voice. The verse says Christians call the Messiah the son of God, and it treats that saying as delusion. A Christian who claims the Qur’an only ever speaks kindly of Christian worship has not read 9:30. A Muslim who claims the Qur’an never says “our God and your God is one” has not read 29:46. Both lines are in the book.

What Christians confess

Deuteronomy 6:4“Show the words of Deuteronomy 6:4Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD:King James Version (2): “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD.” Jesus quotes that sentence when he is asked for the first commandment. Mark 12:29“Show the words of Mark 12:29And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord:King James Version (3): “The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord.” Christians do not set the Shema aside in order to worship Jesus as a second deity. They say the one Lord of the Shema has made himself known as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

John 1:1“Show the words of John 1:1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.King James Version (4): “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” John 17:3“Show the words of John 17:3And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.King James Version (4) is the verse Muslims and Jehovah’s Witnesses both bring next: “this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.” The only true God, and Jesus Christ whom he sent. Christians do not delete either half. The Son is sent by the Father, and the Word who was sent was God. If Jesus is God, why did he pray? stays with that pairing.

John 5:23“Show the words of John 5:23That all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father which hath sent him.King James Version (4) says the purpose of the Son’s work is “that all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father which hath sent him.” 1 John 2:23“Show the words of 1 John 2:23Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father: he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also.King James Version (5): “Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father.” In these sentences, refusing the Son is not a smaller error inside the worship of the Father. It is a refusal of the Father who sent him.

Where the overlap is real

Christians and Muslims are not describing two creators, two moral laws with nothing in common, or two unrelated lords of two peoples. Both say God is one. Both say he created the world. Both say Abraham worshipped him. Both say he speaks, judges, and is not a creature. Both refuse the worship of idols. Qur’an 29:46“Show the words of Qur’an 29:46And do not argue with the People of the Scripture except in a way that is best, except for those who commit injustice among them, and say, "We believe in that which has been revealed to us and revealed to you. And our God and your God is one; and we are Muslims [in submission] to Him."Saheeh InternationalOpen on quran.com ↗ tells Muslims to say the God is one God with the People of the Scripture, and Christians can recognize their own Shema in that sentence.

Muslims who pray are praying to the one Creator they believe in. Christians should not describe that prayer as secret polytheism, and they should not use a pagan genealogy for the name Allah. The Arabic name is the word Arabic-speaking Christians also use for God. The argument is not about a word.

Where the names part

The same referent is not yet the same confession. Christians say the one God of Abraham is the Father who has an eternal Son, that the Son became flesh, and that the Son was crucified and raised. The Qur’an says God does not beget, that Jesus is a messenger and not the one to be worshipped as God, and, on the majority reading of Qur’an 4:157“Show the words of Qur’an 4:157And [for] their saying, "Indeed, we have killed the Messiah, Jesus the son of Mary, the messenger of Allāh." And they did not kill him, nor did they crucify him; but [another] was made to resemble him to them. And indeed, those who differ over it are in doubt about it. They have no knowledge of it except the following of assumption. And they did not kill him, for certain.Saheeh InternationalOpen on quran.com ↗, that Jesus was not crucified. Those are not secondary customs. They are answers to the question “Who is God, and what has he done?”

John 5:23“Show the words of John 5:23That all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father which hath sent him.King James Version and 1 John 2:23“Show the words of 1 John 2:23Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father: he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also.King James Version are why Christians cannot treat the disagreement as a nickname. Honour to the Father, in those verses, goes by way of the Son. A worship that will not have the Son is, on the Christian texts, not yet the worship of the Father those texts describe. That is a claim about revelation. It is not a claim that a Muslim neighbor is insincere, and it is not a claim that nothing in the two confessions touches.

Say both halves. There is one God, and Muslims and Christians are both speaking of the Creator, the God of Abraham. Jesus is God, and the one God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. A conversation that keeps only the first half has not said what Christians confess. A conversation that keeps only the second half has not heard Qur’an 29:46“Show the words of Qur’an 29:46And do not argue with the People of the Scripture except in a way that is best, except for those who commit injustice among them, and say, "We believe in that which has been revealed to us and revealed to you. And our God and your God is one; and we are Muslims [in submission] to Him."Saheeh InternationalOpen on quran.com ↗.

Common objections

If you do not worship Allah, you worship another god. Christians worship the one God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Arabic Christians call him Allah. The Christian refusal is the refusal to deny the Son. Qur’an 112:3“Show the words of Qur’an 112:3¹ Say, "He is Allāh, [who is] One, ² Allāh, the Eternal Refuge. ³ He neither begets nor is born, ⁴ Nor is there to Him any equivalent."Saheeh InternationalOpen on quran.com ↗ and John 1:1“Show the words of John 1:1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.King James Version are the two sentences to put on the table, not a slogan about a different deity.

Qur’an 29:46“Show the words of Qur’an 29:46And do not argue with the People of the Scripture except in a way that is best, except for those who commit injustice among them, and say, "We believe in that which has been revealed to us and revealed to you. And our God and your God is one; and we are Muslims [in submission] to Him."Saheeh InternationalOpen on quran.com ↗ settles it: the God is the same, so the Trinity is a later argument. The verse tells Muslims what to say to the People of the Scripture. Qur’an 4:171“Show the words of Qur’an 4:171O People of the Scripture, do not commit excess in your religion or say about Allāh except the truth. The Messiah, Jesus the son of Mary, was but a messenger of Allāh and His word which He directed to Mary and a soul [created at a command] from Him. So believe in Allāh and His messengers. And do not say, "Three"; desist - it is better for you. Indeed, Allāh is but one God. Exalted is He above having a son. To Him belongs whatever is in the heavens and whatever is on the earth. And sufficient is Allāh as Disposer of affairs.Saheeh InternationalOpen on quran.com ↗, Qur’an 5:73“Show the words of Qur’an 5:73They have certainly disbelieved who say, "Allāh is the third of three." And there is no god except one God. And if they do not desist from what they are saying, there will surely afflict the disbelievers among them a painful punishment.Saheeh InternationalOpen on quran.com ↗, and Qur’an 9:30“Show the words of Qur’an 9:30The Jews say, "Ezra is the son of Allāh"; and the Christians say, "The Messiah is the son of Allāh." That is their statement from their mouths; they imitate the saying of those who disbelieved before [them]. May Allāh destroy them; how are they deluded?Saheeh InternationalOpen on quran.com ↗ tell them what not to say about God and about Jesus. The book contains both. Christians agree with the first that God is one. They do not agree that “one” excludes the Son. Can God have a Son? is that denial, in the Qur’an’s words and in John.

Christians worship three gods and call it one. The Christian confession is one God. Deuteronomy 6:4“Show the words of Deuteronomy 6:4Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD:King James Version is still ours. Three gods would be an excess Christians are bound to reject, and Qur’an 4:171“Show the words of Qur’an 4:171O People of the Scripture, do not commit excess in your religion or say about Allāh except the truth. The Messiah, Jesus the son of Mary, was but a messenger of Allāh and His word which He directed to Mary and a soul [created at a command] from Him. So believe in Allāh and His messengers. And do not say, "Three"; desist - it is better for you. Indeed, Allāh is but one God. Exalted is He above having a son. To Him belongs whatever is in the heavens and whatever is on the earth. And sufficient is Allāh as Disposer of affairs.Saheeh InternationalOpen on quran.com ↗ is right to reject it. The Trinity is not that excess. It is the claim that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are the one God. The Trinity states it without treating the word as a puzzle to win.

Jesus himself said the Father is the only true God. John 17:3“Show the words of John 17:3And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.King James Version says that. The same Gospel says the Word was God, and Thomas answers the risen Jesus, “My Lord and my God,” in John 20:28“Show the words of John 20:28And Thomas answered and said unto him, My LORD and my God.King James Version. The page on Jesus’ prayer reads those lines as one Gospel, not as a verse isolated from the book.

Keep reading

• Tawhid and Christian monotheism
• Can God have a Son?
• The Trinity
• If Jesus is God, why did he pray?
• Jesus in the Qur’an and the Gospels