Akwat Kbrana said:
That depends on which book you believe.
Islam talks about all of the previous prophets including Jesus, whom it says was not actually the Son of God. Whereas Christianity has the Trinity concept, Islam addresses this and means to restore the emphasis of divinity on God himself.
If someone is a Christian then of course he/she will not agree with this. But to a Muslim or even to a non-believing observer who might read the texts but not form opinions on what is true and not true, the Islamic God is the Christian God.
Of course it does. If you hold to the Qu'ran and the Hadith, you will deny Trinitarianism. If you hold to the New Testament--and your exegetical approach is roughly consistent with that of historic orthodox Christianity--then you will hold to Trinitarianism. That's precisely the point that I was making. For anyone, Muslim or otherwise, to claim that the Islamic God is the Christian God, is both arrogant and fallacious. Religious communities must be allowed to define their own beliefs. Muslims would be highly offended if Christians went around claiming that Allah is a Trinity, so it is similarly out of bounds for Muslims (or anyone else, for that matter) to claim that the Christian conception of Yahweh/Jehovah is not Trinitarian.
By saying that the Quran's presentation of the "One God" being the same for the three monotheistic religions is arrogant and fallacious, aren't you therefore essentially debunking, denying, and defining the beliefs of Islam? Your response seems defensive...
Nobody said the Christian God isn't Trinitarian or that Christians aren't allowed to believe that. The Islamic God, as portrayed through the Quran, is the Judeo Christian God. The Quran is meant to be God's final revelation to people. Is it? I don't know. But that's what it's meant to be.
If memory serves me correctly the angel Gabriel is the one who appears to Muhammad and has him recite passages from the Quran. The Quran also mentions Lucifer and all of the preceding prophets (from Abraham to Moses to Jesus) multiple times.
By explaining that Jesus wasn't actually the son of God, The Quran surely conflicts with Christianity. But again, like Christianity like a continuation of Judiasm, Islam (via The Quran's text) is a continuation of both of those religions. For example, The Quran says something like God wouldn't allow his son to be sacrificed (I think it says Judas was crucified in Jesus' place). Again, if you prescribe to Christian beliefs this is offensive. However, The Bible has at least two different mentions of Judas' death (hung himself vs. his bowels bursting out in a field of blood).
Well, what's true? Which is the correct account of what happened? That depends on what you believe.
The point is you can't say that explaining what a holy book says is arrogant and fallacious. That in itself IS fallacious. There is a difference between saying, "This book says that," and saying, "This is true, that is not."
By saying that Muslims can't believe that God is one and there is no Trinity, you're saying Muslims can't believe in Islam. By saying Christians can't believe that Allah is not their God who exists in a Holy Trinity, you're saying Christians can't hold to their beliefs.
These disagreements inherently exist. While you might say that these disagreements refute the claim that the one God is the same among the three monotheistic faiths, that claim is part of the Islamic belief, which again Muslims believe via The Quran is an extension of the preceding faiths.
My explanation that the Islamic God and Judeo-Christian God is not me saying the Christian Trinity is not true. It means that The Quran, as it says within, is presented as a continuation of those religions. Is it? I don't know. But I'm merely illustrating the progression of monotheistic belief from Judaism --> Christianity --> Islam, if one interprets each successive text as a continuation of the previous one, as each claims.
The Bible continues The Old Testament and even disagrees with some Old Testament laws. Hell, one of the main reasons Jewish people don't believe Jesus was the Messiah is because Christianity developed the idea of a Trinity, whereas The Old Testament says the Lord is one. The Quran essentially revisits this notion.
What you find fallacious depends on what view to which you prescribe. But if you do not have stakes in any of these three religions, you see the similarities and differences among them, acknowledging where the disagreements are and how the overall arc of belief in one God has evolved.
The overarching theme is that The Quran means to revisit The Old Testament and correct what it says are some of the misguided beliefs in Christianity. Again, true? I don't know. But that's what The Quran says, and it's said to be the word of God himself. Muslims will say it's true, Christians will say it's not.
I read a book a long time ago called "A History of God" by Karen Armstrong. It's quite a good, balanced detailing of the history of religion and development of the three primary monotheistic beliefs.