ﱻ ﱼ ﱽ ﱾ ﱿ ﲀ ﲁ ﲂ ﲃ ﲄ ﲅ ﲆ ﲇ ﲈ ﲉ ﲊ ﲋ ﲌ ﲍ ﲎ ﲏ ﲐ ﲑ ﲒ ﲓ ﲔ ﲕ
They have certainly disbelieved who say, "Allah 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.
Tafsir
Verse range: 5:73
{ **Laqad kafar allatheena qaaloo inna Allaha thalithu thalathatin** } *Indeed, those who say, "Allah is the third of three," have disbelieved.*
There are two issues concerning this verse:
The word {ثلاثة} (three) is in the genitive case (kasra) because it is part of an idāfah (construct state). It is not permissible to have it in the accusative case (nasb).
The meaning intended here is "one of three."
However, if one says {رابع ثلاثة} (the fourth of three), then both the genitive (jar) and accusative (nasb) cases are permissible. This is because the meaning here is "the one who makes the three into four by being among them."
There are two main approaches to interpreting what the Christians meant by this phrase:
The First Approach: Some exegetes hold that they meant that Allah, Mary, and Jesus are three gods. This is supported by Allah's statement to the Messiah: {Qultal linnāsi ittakhidhunī wa ummiya ilāhayni min dūni Allāh} (And [mention] when Allah says, "O Jesus, son of Mary, did you say to the people, 'Take me and my mother as two gods besides Allah'?") (Al-Ma'idah: 116).
Under this interpretation, {thālithu thalāthatin} means "one of three gods," or "the third among three gods." The evidence supporting this is Allah's rebuttal: {Wa mā min ilāhin illā ilāhun wāhid} (And there is no deity except one God).
If this is the intended meaning, there is an implied word (omission) in the verse—the word "gods" is omitted because it was already known from their doctrines. Al-Wāḥidī stated that whoever says "Allah is the third of three" without intending "the third of three gods" is not considered a disbeliever. This is because Allah is the third of any two things by way of knowledge, based on the verse: {Mā yakūnu min najwā thalāthatin illā huwa rābiʿuhum wa lā khamsatin illā huwa sādusuhum} (No three people confer privately, but that He is the fourth of them, and no five, but that He is the sixth of them) (Al-Mujadilah: 7).
The Second Approach: Theologians have narrated that the Christians claim: There is one essence (jawhar), manifested in three aqānīm (subsistences/persons): the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. These three constitute one God, similar to how the sun is one name encompassing the disc, the rays, and the heat.
They identify the Father as the Essence (al-Dhāt), the Son as the Word (al-Kalimah), and the Spirit as Life (al-Ḥayāh). They affirmed the Essence, the Word, and Life, and claimed that the Word, which is the speech of God, mixed with the body of Jesus in a manner like water mixing with wine or milk. They asserted that the Father is a god, the Son is a god, and the Spirit is a god, yet all are one God.
Know that this doctrine is demonstrably false by the necessity of reason. Three cannot be one, and one cannot be three. There is no doctrine in the world more corrupt and evidently false than the doctrine of the Christians.
{ **Wa mā min ilāhin illā ilāhun wāḥid** } *And there is no deity except one God.*
Regarding the word {min} (from/of), there are two views:
{ **Wa in lam yantahū ʿammā yaqūlūna layamassanna allatheena kafarū minhum ʿadhābun alīm** } *And if they do not desist from what they are saying, there will surely touch those who disbelieve among them a painful punishment.*
Al-Zajjāj explained that this means the punishment will touch those who persist in this religion, as many of them repented from Christianity.
Then Allah Almighty says:
{ **Afalā yatūbūna ilā Allāhi wa yastaghfirūnahu wa Allāhu Ghafūrun Raḥīm** } *Will they not then repent to Allah and seek His forgiveness? And Allah is Forgiving and Merciful.*
