# Do Muslims and Christians Worship the Same God? > Muslims and Christians both confess one God, the God of Abraham. The disagreement is whether that one God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and whether Jesus is God. - Canonical: https://apologetics.wiki/islam/do-muslims-and-christians-worship-the-same-god - Religions: Islam - Denominations: none - Beliefs: none - Tags: islam, monotheism, trinity, god - Updated: 2026-10-08 - Author: [Paul Ambrose](https://apologetics.wiki/author/hi-its-paul) ([GitHub](https://github.com/hi-its-paul)) > [Qur’an 29:46](https://quran.com/al-ankabut/46) tells Muslims to say to the People of the Scripture, “our God and your God is one.” [Surah 112](https://quran.com/al-ikhlas/1) 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](/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](https://quran.com/al-ankabut/46) [(1)](#ref-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](https://quran.com/al-ikhlas/1) [(1)](#ref-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?](/islam/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](https://quran.com/an-nisa/171) [(1)](#ref-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](https://quran.com/al-maidah/73) [(1)](#ref-1) names the saying it rejects: “They have certainly disbelieved who say, ‘Allāh is the third of three.’” [The Trinity](/article/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](https://quran.com/at-tawbah/30) [(1)](#ref-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](/bible/deuteronomy/6/4) [(2)](#ref-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](/bible/mark/12/29) [(3)](#ref-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](/bible/john/1/1) [(4)](#ref-4): “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” [John 17:3](/bible/john/17/3) [(4)](#ref-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?](/islam/if-jesus-is-god-why-did-he-pray) stays with that pairing. [John 5:23](/bible/john/5/23) [(4)](#ref-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](/bible/1-john/2/23) [(5)](#ref-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](https://quran.com/al-ankabut/46) 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](https://quran.com/an-nisa/157), 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](/bible/john/5/23) and [1 John 2:23](/bible/1-john/2/23) 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](https://quran.com/al-ankabut/46). ## 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](https://quran.com/al-ikhlas/3) and [John 1:1](/bible/john/1/1) are the two sentences to put on the table, not a slogan about a different deity. **[Qur’an 29:46](https://quran.com/al-ankabut/46) 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](https://quran.com/an-nisa/171), [Qur’an 5:73](https://quran.com/al-maidah/73), and [Qur’an 9:30](https://quran.com/at-tawbah/30) 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?](/islam/can-god-have-a-son) is that denial, in the Qur’an’s words and in [John](/bible/john). **Christians worship three gods and call it one.** The Christian confession is one God. [Deuteronomy 6:4](/bible/deuteronomy/6/4) is still ours. Three gods would be an excess Christians are bound to reject, and [Qur’an 4:171](https://quran.com/an-nisa/171) 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](/article/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](/bible/john/17/3) 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](/bible/john/20/28). 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](/islam/tawhid-and-christian-monotheism) - [Can God have a Son?](/islam/can-god-have-a-son) - [The Trinity](/article/the-trinity) - [If Jesus is God, why did he pray?](/islam/if-jesus-is-god-why-did-he-pray) - [Jesus in the Qur’an and the Gospels](/islam/jesus-in-the-quran-and-the-gospels) ## Passages quoted on this page ### Qur’an 4:171 Saheeh International. [Open on quran.com](https://quran.com/4/171) > 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. To Him belongs whatever is in the heavens and whatever is on the earth. And sufficient is Allāh as Disposer of affairs. ### Qur’an 5:73 Saheeh International. [Open on quran.com](https://quran.com/5/73) > They 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. ### Deuteronomy 6:4 King James Version. > Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: ### Mark 12:29 King James Version. > And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: ### John 17:3 King James Version. > And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. ### John 5:23 King James Version. > 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 King James Version. > Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father: he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also. ### Qur’an 4:157 Saheeh International. [Open on quran.com](https://quran.com/an-nisa/157) > And [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. ### John 20:28 King James Version. > And Thomas answered and said unto him, My LORD and my God. ## Sources Numbered to match the HTML References list. Item 1 is `#ref-1` under `#references`. Scripture links to the King James Version on this site. 1. [Qur'an, 29:46; 112:1–4; 4:171; 5:73; 9:30](https://quran.com/al-ankabut/46) (Saheeh International, as published on Quran.com. Words in square brackets are part of that translation.) 2. [Deuteronomy, 6:4](https://apologetics.wiki/bible/deuteronomy/6/4). King James Version 3. [Gospel of Mark, 12:29](https://apologetics.wiki/bible/mark/12/29). King James Version 4. [Gospel of John, 1:1; 5:23; 17:3](https://apologetics.wiki/bible/john/1/1). King James Version 5. [First Letter of John, 2:23](https://apologetics.wiki/bible/1-john/2/23). King James Version ## See also - [Tawhid and Christian monotheism](https://apologetics.wiki/islam/tawhid-and-christian-monotheism) — Muslims and Christians both say God is one. This page is about what each side thinks the other has compromised. - [The Trinity](https://apologetics.wiki/article/the-trinity) — The Christian confession that the one God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, stated without pretending it is a puzzle to win. - [Can God Have a Son?](https://apologetics.wiki/islam/can-god-have-a-son) — The Qur'an condemns the claim that God has taken a son, especially a son by a consort. Christians deny that picture and still confess the eternal Son. - [If Jesus Is God, Why Did He Pray?](https://apologetics.wiki/islam/if-jesus-is-god-why-did-he-pray) — Jesus prayed, said the Father was greater, and said he did not know the hour. Christians still confess that he is God. This page says why those sentences sit in one Gospel. - [Did Jesus Die on the Cross?](https://apologetics.wiki/islam/did-jesus-die-on-the-cross) — The Qur'an is widely read as saying Jesus was not crucified. The Gospels, Paul, and two Roman-era historians say he was. ## History [View history on GitHub](https://github.com/Apologetics-Wiki/apologetics-wiki/commits/main/src/content/articles/do-muslims-and-christians-worship-the-same-god.md)