Muslims proclaim that the Qur’an and Islam teach pure monotheism. On face value, this might be true but when we look deeper into the Qur’an and hadith, we find that it really isn’t that simple. In fact, it’s rather astonishing how many issues arise from Islamic sources on this issue. I am going to make a bold statement and put forward the case that Islam has, at a minimum, one hundred and twenty divine beings.
It seems sensible to start with Muhammad. In the Qur’an, Muhammad is called a ‘plain warner’ and this can be seen in Surahs 6:37, 7:184, 10:20, 11:12, 13:7, 13:27, 15:89, 17:59, 20:133, 21:5, 22:49, 26:115, 27:92, 29:50, 33:45, 34:28, 34:46, 35:23, 35:24, 38:65, 38:70, 46:9, 48:8, 51:10, 79:45 and 88:21. However, in other Islamic sources, this statement of Allah is strongly disputed. In Sahih Bukhari 5639, he performs a water miracle. This hadith is usually disregarded as it contradicts the Qur’an but there are many more examples of Muhammad’s deification. He has healing saliva in Sahih Muslim 2146, children are saved by his tongue in Al-Adab Al-Mufrad 1183, sucking his tongue indefinitely quenches thirst, Muslims catch his spittle in Sahih Bukhari 2731 and 2732 and can be found both licking up his blood and drinking his urine in Kitab Ash-shifa bi ta’rif huquq al-Mustafa of Qadi ‘Iyad Ibn Musa al-Yaqubi. Even though Allah isn’t meant to have partners, Allah and Muhammad share the name ‘the one who is praised’, one of Allah’s ninety nine-names and the meaning of Muhammad, who also has ninety-nine names. When you ask any Muslim who ‘the praised one’ is, they will not be able to legitimately differentiate between Allah and Muhammad. The Shahada was also originally simply La ilaha illallah, as seen in Sunan an-Nasa’i 2443, with the double Shahada, including ‘and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah’, was added later, which puts Muhammad on par with Allah. If Muhammad was only a prophet, there would be no need to include him in the Shahada, let alone it being scandalous to Allah. The third additional divine being is the Rūḥ, which also presents a stern test to Tawhid. Surah 15:28-29 repeats the Genesis account, which creates problems, as what is described as ‘my spirit’ does not originate from creation. Surah 19:16-19 mentions ‘our’ spirit appearing to Mary as a well made man before the spirit, Rūḥ, tells her ‘I will give you a pure boy’. This proves the spirit can appear separately and give life, blowing into Mary to give life in Surah 66:12, powers only God has. You might say the explanation to what the Rūḥ is simply Allah’s own spirit but that would be incorrect, as shown by Surah 5:116 when Allah’s spirit or soul is called the Nafs, rather than Rūḥ, the spirit shown in other places. The common and mainstream explanation of the Rūḥ is the Angel Gabriel but this is an even clearer mistake than Allah’s own spirit. The Rūḥ is separated from angels in three verses; Surah 70:4, ‘the angels and the spirit ascend to him in a day; its duration was fifty thousand years’, Surah 78:38, ‘a day the spirit and the angels stand in ranks, they will not speak, except those whom the merciful permitted and spoke truth’ and Surah 97:4, which says that ‘The angels and the spirit come down in it by the will of their lord from every command’. Interestingly, Surah 89:21-22 separate Allah from the angels in the same language as the spirit, so we cannot accept this and deny the other. Even Muhammad himself could not explain the Rūḥ in Surah 17:85, whereas a clear answer would be expected. The verse reads; ‘And they ask you about the spirit. Say, “The spirit is of the affair of my lord, and you did not receive from knowledge, except a little.”’ Allah’s word is also a separate, divine being. Surah 4:171 describes Allah’s word being cast down to Mary. First and foremost, Allah cannot have ever been without his word, so it is uncreated, and this word was cast out, so it must be a divine agent. This verse also calls Allah’s word Jesus; ‘Surely the Christ ‘Isā, son of Mary, is only a messenger of Allah and his word, which he cast to Mary, and a spirit from him.’ This verse has huge implications and alongside Surah 3:45, in which Allah proclaims ‘When the angels said, “O Mary, surely Allah gives you the good news with a word from him. His name is the Christ, ‘Isā, son of Mary, exalted in this world and in the hereafter, and of the nearer’, Jesus is absolutely confirmed to be Allah’s word, meaning Jesus is divine too, as is consistent with John 1:1, 1:14, 20:20, Isaiah 9:6-10 and more where the Word is with God in the beginning, the Word is God in the beginning, the Word becomes flesh as Jesus, created everything and appears before the disciples. The Qur’an itself is our fourth divine being in Islam. In Sunan Ibn Majah 3781, it says; ‘It was narrated from Ibn Buraidah that his father told that the Messenger of Allah said: The Quran will come on the Day of Resurrection, like a pale man, and will say: 'I am the one that kept you awake at night and made you thirsty during the day.’ Unless Muhammad is a liar or being unclear, both impossible for Islam to be true, the Qur’an will appear as a pale man on the day of resurrection. In Jami’ at-Tirmidhi 1963, Riyad as-Salihin 991 and 992, we see the Qur’an interceding; with individual chapters arguing on behalf of those who applied it. For the Qur’an to be able to testify and have memory, it needs to be conscious now in some form, let alone needing a physical form later for the day of resurrection. As the Qur’an is eternal because it cannot be destroyed, it is a fourth divine being. I could argue that there are twenty-six different Arabic Qur’ans, which could be an additional twenty-five Islamic divine beings, but we will assume only one is correct and leave the perfect preservation debate behind. Not only is the Qur’an a divine being but each individual Surah of the Qur’an is too. In Sahih Muslim 804 a, we read that; ‘Recite the Qur'an, for on the Day of Resurrection it will come as an intercessor for those who recite It. Recite the two bright ones, al-Baqara and Surah Al 'Imran, for on the Day of Resurrection they will come as two clouds or two shades, or two flocks of birds in ranks, pleading for those who recite them.’ Now that we know some chapters are flocks of birds that can communicate with each other and testify on the day of judgement, we can establish each Surah, as they could all testify each as a separate divine being which adds a colossal one hundred and fourteen divine beings to the total count. Bear in mind that this is the minimum given potential lost chapters, although again we will be charitable with perfect preservation. The final separate divine being I will present in this article is the Black Stone, for which the argument will be similar to the Qur’an as a divine being. In Jami’ at-Tirmidhi 961, we see the following; ‘The Messenger of Allah said about the (Black) Stone: “By Allah! Allah will raise it on the Day of Resurrection with two eyes by which it sees and a tongue that it speaks with, testifying to whoever touched it in truth.”’ Like the Qur’an, knowing that the stone will testify on the day of judgement from a memory, it must have consciousness, so is therefore our one hundred and twentieth divine agent. It seems evident that if Muslims reject the trinity based on the false premise that there are three separate divine beings, they should be consistent and reject the one hundred and twenty of Islam.
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