Few questions cut to the heart of Islamic tawhid — the oneness of God — more sharply than these: can the infinite, eternal Creator of all existence become a finite, mortal human being? And can the All-Sufficient Lord of the heavens and the earth have a son? These are not merely academic questions. For Muslims, the answers define the boundary between monotheism and its violation, between authentic faith and a profound misunderstanding of the Divine. Islam does not ask its followers to accept paradoxes on blind trust; it invites them to think, to reflect, and to recognise that the Quran’s arguments on the nature of Allah are grounded in a logic so clear, so human, that any honest seeker of truth can follow them — regardless of background, culture, or prior belief. This episode of The Deen Show unpacks one of the most important theological discussions of our time, drawing on the Quran, the Sunnah, and straightforward reasoning to answer: can God become a man, and can God have a son?
The Logical Impossibility of a God Who Becomes Human
The Islamic theological tradition begins with a definition: God is infinite, self-sufficient, and eternal — uncreated, unbounded, utterly independent. Human beings are finite, mortal, and entirely dependent — we are born, we breathe, we eat, we age, and we die. Consider the image of a piece of string shaped into a square (representing the divine attributes) and a circle (representing the attributes of a human being). You may reshape the string from square to circle, but you cannot make it simultaneously a square and a circle — something cannot be blue and red and still be blue. The claim that Jesus (peace be upon him) was both fully God and fully human is therefore not a paradox to be accepted on faith; it is a logical impossibility by definition. The Quran draws attention to this with disarming clarity: did not Jesus and his mother eat food, walk in marketplaces, and breathe air? If Allah held power over them — which He does absolutely — they cannot be equal to Him. The same reasoning scales to the cosmic: modern science confirms that our Earth is a speck in a solar system, which is a speck in a galaxy, which is a speck in the observable universe. The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ expressed this 1,400 years ago, noting that our entire universe before Allah’s Kursi (Divine Footstool) is like a ring in an infinite desert — and the Kursi itself is but a ring before the ‘Arsh, the Divine Throne. To say God “became” this speck upon a speck upon a speck is not an honour to Jesus; it is a diminishment of Allah’s infinite majesty that no sincere spirituality can accommodate.
- God’s eternal nature cannot contradict itself: A good God does not do evil — not because He lacks power, but because goodness is His nature. By the same logic, an eternal God cannot become temporary; self-sufficiency cannot become neediness. These are not limitations; they are the definition of divinity.
- The Quran’s common-sense challenge: If Allah has power over Jesus and Mary — power to destroy them both at any moment — they cannot simultaneously be God. Authority over something and identity with it are mutually exclusive.
- Justice on the Day of Judgement: To send a soul to eternal punishment for refusing to believe something logically impossible — and which can never be proven, by the nature of impossibilities — is incompatible with Allah being Al-‘Adl, the Perfectly Just.
- Cosmic scale as a mirror: When we grasp just how infinitesimal humanity is in relation to creation, and how creation itself is a speck before the Divine Throne, the idea that God “descended” into a human body is not humility — it is an insult to the Grandeur of Allah.
“How could I believe that You — the eternal, self-sufficient Creator of the heavens and the earth — were a temporary, mortal, needy man? You are far above that. If God then puts me in hell forever for this, I will never feel for one moment of eternity that He has treated me fairly or justly.”
What “Son of God” Actually Means — and Why It Falls Apart
For those who stop short of claiming Jesus is God Himself yet still hold that he is the “son of God,” the Islamic position is equally clear: softening the claim does not make it acceptable. The literal meaning of “son” implies biological descent — which requires sexual union, something categorically impossible to ascribe to the Creator of all life. The Quran raises the question with characteristic precision: if God had a son, who is God’s wife? Some early Christian theologians themselves used the parallel — “my son is human like me; therefore God’s son must be divine like God” — which circles back to the impossibility already addressed. And yet the Quran is far from dismissive of Jesus (peace be upon him): it honours him profoundly as a Word from Allah bestowed upon Maryam, a Spirit created by Him, a Messenger, and a Prophet of towering rank, with an entire surah of the Quran bearing his mother’s name. The key phrase “Spirit from Him” (Rooh min hu) — as the great scholar Sheikh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah clarified — indicates that the soul’s origin and starting point is with Allah as its Creator and Controller; it does not imply that the soul is a divine attribute or a part of God. Just as “the House of Allah,” “the she-camel of Allah,” and “the slaves of Allah” are mentioned in conjunction with Allah by way of honouring without being divine attributes, so too is Jesus honoured by his association with Allah — without being Allah, or part of Allah, in any sense. A Christian doctor of al-Rasheed’s court once challenged a Muslim scholar with precisely this verse, claiming it implied Jesus was part of God; the scholar responded by citing the verse “all that is in the heavens and the earth is from Him” — and asked: does that mean the entire creation is part of God? The Christian fell silent, reflected, and accepted Islam.
“The Messiah ‘Eesa, son of Maryam, was no more than a Messenger of Allah and His Word which He bestowed upon Maryam, and a spirit created by Him. So believe in Allah and His Messengers, and say not ‘Trinity.’ Desist — it is better for you. Verily, Allah is One God, Exalted above having a son.”
— Surah an-Nisa’ 4:171
The Islamic understanding of Jesus (peace be upon him) is not a diminishment — it is an elevation rooted in truth. He is among the mightiest messengers in history, born of a miraculous virgin birth, given extraordinary signs by Allah’s permission, and held in deep reverence by every Muslim on earth. Islam’s insistence that he is a servant and messenger of Allah is not a rejection of his honour; it is the affirmation of the greatest station any created being can hold: proximity to and willing submission to the One who created all of existence. What matters before Allah is not caste, colour, or class — it is faithfulness, honour, and obedience to the Creator. The question every sincere seeker of spiritual guidance must ultimately sit with is not “can I believe the impossible?” but rather “what does the Creator Himself tell us about His own nature?” The Quran answers without ambiguity: Qul huwa Allahu ahad — “Say: He is Allah, the One.” He does not beget, nor is He begotten. He has no equal, no partner, and no rival. To accept this — with the whole of one’s heart, mind, and soul — is the foundation of authentic Islamic faith, the source of real spiritual purpose, and the beginning of a relationship with Allah built not on impossibility, but on clarity, gratitude, and awe.
