Isa is Allah

In this post I shall look at the concept of Isa's being Allah. In the Quran Isa creates, gives life and resurrects, all of which Allah supposedly does.

S 4:171 People of the Book, do not exceed in your religion nor say about Allah but the truth. The Messiah Isa the son of Maryam is only a messenger of Allah’s and his word which he threw to Maryam and spirit from him. So believe in Allah and his messengers and do not say Three. Cease; it is better for you. Allah is only one god. Praise be to him that he should have a child! His is what is in the skies and what is on the Earth. And Allah was sufficient as an agent.

Isa is Allah's word and spirit from him. Muslims call him Ruhallah, the Spirit of Allah. In this translation of a hadith he is expressly called Allah's spirit: "They would come to Moses (peace be upon him), but he would say: I am not in a position to do that; you better go to Jesus, the Word of Allah and His Spirit." https://sunnah.com/muslim:195

S 19:17-19 And she took from them a screen. Then we sent to her our spirit and it assumed for her the likeness of a regular man. She said: I take refuge in Al-Rahman from you, if you are fearing. He said: I am only a messenger of your lord’s that I may give you a pure boy.

Allah, it is presumed, sends its spirit and it assumes the likeness of a man. It's not a spirit but our spirit, therefore Allah. Muslims will say that it is Jibril. An excerpt from an article:

Muslim expositors have interpreted Q. 19:16-21, 21:91 and 66:12 to mean that Allah sent Gabriel to appear to Mary who then breathed into her body which caused her to get pregnant:

And Mary (wa-Maryama is a supplement to imra’ata Fir‘awna) daughter of ‘Imran, who preserved [the chastity of] her womb, so We breathed into it of Our Spirit, namely, Gabriel — when he breathed into the opening of her shirt, by God’s creation of this action of his which reached her womb, thus conceiving Jesus — and she confirmed the words of her Lord, His prescriptions, and His, revealed, Scriptures and she was of the obedient, [one] of the obedient folk. (Tafsir al-Jalalayn, Q. 66:12; source; underline emphasis ours)

And:

(And Mary, daughter of Imran, whose body was chaste, therefore We breathed therein something of Our Spirit) and so Gabriel breathed inside her garment and she became pregnant with Jesus. (And she put faith in the words of her Lord) she believed in what Gabriel told her that he was the Messenger of Allah entrusted with giving her a holy son (and His Scriptures) and she also believed in His Scriptures: the Torah, the Gospel and all other Scriptures; it is also said this means: she believed in the words of her Lord that Jesus the son of Mary will come into being by Allah saying "Be!" and he became a human being, and she also believed in His Scripture: the Gospel, (and was of the obedient) in times of hardship and comfort; and it is also said that this means: and she was obedient to He Who is far transcendent and majestic'. (Tanwîr al-Miqbâs min Tafsîr Ibn ‘Abbâs; source; underline emphasis ours)

Finally:

<And Maryam, the daughter of `Imran who guarded her chastity (private part).> meaning, who protected and purified her honor, by being chaste and free of immorality…

<And We breathed into it (private part) through Our Ruh,> meaning, through the angel Jibril. Allah sent the angel Jibril to Maryam, and he came to her in the shape of a man in every respect. Allah commanded him to blow into a gap of her garment and that breath went into her womb through her private part; this is how `Isa was conceived. This is why Allah said here…

<And We breathed into it through Our Ruh, and she testified to the truth of her Lords Kalimat, and His Kutub,> meaning His decree and His legislation. (Tafsir Ibn Kathir; source)

There are a few problems with this view, not the least of which is that the Quran never identifies the Spirit as Gabriel. In fact, when Muhammad was asked concerning the Spirit he didn’t say he was Gabriel, but candidly admitted that he didn’t have a lot of information and didn’t really know much about his exact identity:

They will question thee concerning the Spirit. Say: 'The Spirit is of the bidding of my Lord. You have been given of knowledge nothing except a little.' S. 17:85

Why didn’t Muhammad simply come out and say that the Spirit is Gabriel if this is what he really believed?

The second problem is that this view implies that Gabriel, whom Muslims believe is a creature, is another god besides Allah since he has the same ability that the Muslim deity has, such as creating and breathing life into things. Thus, this position turns a creature into a co-creator and life-giver with Allah (that is, unless Muslims want to change their position and claim that Gabriel isn’t a creature).

The third problem is that both Q. 21:91 and 66:12 emphatically say that it is Allah who breathed the Spirit into Mary, whereas the above expositors state that it was Gabriel who did so. This means that, a) Gabriel cannot be the Spirit since he is the one who breathed out the Spirit into Mary, clearly differentiating the two, and b) Gabriel is none other than Allah, the very one who breathed the Spirit into Jesus’ blessed mother. In other words, Gabriel breathing out the Spirit identifies him as Allah since the Quranic passages expressly teach that it was Allah, not some other being, that did the breathing.

This is what we would have if we were to put this into a form of a logical syllogism:

1. The Quran says that Allah breathed the Spirit into Mary.

2. The Muslim exegetes say that it was Gabriel who breathed into the mother of Christ.

3. Therefore, Gabriel is Allah the very one who did the breathing and caused Jesus’ conception.

Clearly, this Islamic interpretation of the aforementioned references is brimming with theological problems.

The Alternative View

There is another way of interpreting these particular Quranic references, one that may not be too pleasing for Muslims. One can understand from all of these citations that Jesus is God’s Spirit who was breathed into Mary. After all, doesn’t the Quran identify Jesus as a Spirit who proceeds from Allah?

People of the Book, go not beyond the bounds in your religion, and say not as to God but the truth. The Messiah, Jesus son of Mary, was only the Messenger of God, and His Word that He committed to Mary, and a Spirit from Him (roohun minhu). So believe in God and His Messengers, and say not, 'Three.' Refrain; better is it for you. God is only One God. Glory be to Him -- That He should have a son! To Him belongs all that is in the heavens and in the earth; God suffices for a guardian. S. 4:171

And isn’t this the same expression used in reference to one who is both omnipresent and omnipotent?

Thou shalt not find any people who believe in God and the Last Day who are loving to anyone who opposes. God and His Messenger, not though they were their fathers, or their sons, or their brothers, or their clan. Those -- He has written faith upon their hearts, and He has confirmed them with a Spirit from Himself (roohin minhu); and He shall admit them into gardens underneath which rivers flow, therein to dwell forever, God being well-pleased with them, and they well-pleased with Him. Those are God's party; why, surely God's party -- they are the prosperers. S. 58:22

In order for this Spirit to be able to strengthen all true believers at the same time he must be personally present with all of them wherever they are at and must have the divine power to protect and preserve them all. Seeing that these are all characteristics of Deity it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the late Muslim translator Abdullah Yusuf Ali referred to this entity as the Divine Spirit:

… Cf. ii 87 and 253, where it is said that God strengthened the Prophet Jesus with the holy spirit. Here we learn that all good and righteous men are strengthened by God with the holy spirit. If anything, the phrase used here is stronger, ‘a spirit from Himself’. Whenever any one offers his heart in faith and purity to God, God accepts it, engraves that faith on the seeker's heart, and further fortifies him with the Divine Spirit, which we can no more define adequately than we can define in human language the nature of God. (Ali, The Meaning of the Holy Quran, p. 1518, fn. 5365; bold emphasis ours)

And yet Jesus is said to be the Spirit from God!

Moreover, doesn’t the hadith literature call Jesus the Spirit of Allah (Roohullah)?

III: The words of Allah, "He taught Adam the names of everything." (2:31) 4206… He will say, 'Go to 'Isa, the slave of Allah and His Messenger, the Word of Allah and His Spirit.' But he will say, 'I am not worthy of this task, Go to Muhammad, a slave whose past and future wrong actions Allah has forgiven…

And:

CCIII: "Descendants of those We carried with Nuh. He was a grateful slave." (17:3) 4435… "They will go to 'Isa and say, 'O 'Isa! You are the Messenger of Allah and His Word which He cast to Maryam and a spirit from Him. You spoke to people while in the cradle. Intercede with your Lord on our behalf. Do you not see what we are suffering?' 'Isa will say, 'My Lord is angry today with such anger as has never existed before nor will again,' and he did not mention a sin. 'O my soul! My soul! My soul! Go to someone else. Go to Muhammad.' (Aisha Bewley, Sahih Collection of al-Bukhari, Chapter 68. Book of Tafsir: source)

Finally:

Ruh-Ullah - Spirit of God, A special title given by Prophet Muhammad (S. A.) to Jesus (A. A.) (M. A. Qazi, Concise Dictionary of Islamic Terms [Kazi Publications, Chicago IL, 1979], p. 57)

In light of the foregoing one can legitimately understand from Q. 21:91 and 66:12 that Allah sent forth Jesus, his very own Spirit, into Mary in order that he might become a man.

Interestingly, noted Muslim author Neal Robinson referred to a particular Islamic interpretation of Q. 19:16-21 which actually supports our exegesis. He writes:

"Alternatively it might be thought (on the basis of 4:171) that the Spirit who presented himself to Mary was none other than the Messiah to whom she subsequently gave birth. At first this seems improbable because of the way in which the Spirit refers to himself as a messenger. There is, however, an apocryphal writing which furnishes a precedent for identifying the agent of the annunciation with the Word who became flesh. This is the so-called Epistula Apostolorum which purports to be a letter addressed to the worldwide Church by the 11 disciples recording a conversation which they had with Christ after the resurrection. In the course of the conversation he told them:

At that time I appeared in the form of the archangel Gabriel to [the virgin] Mary and spoke with her, and her heart received [me]; she believed and laughed and I, the Word, went into her and became flesh; and I myself was servant FOR MYSELF, and in the form of the image of an angel." (Robinson, Christ In Islam and Christianity [State University of New York Press (SUNY), Albany 1991], Chapter 15. The Virginal Conception, p. 157; bold and capital emphasis ours)

And:

"Tabari assumes that the Spirit who was sent to Mary was Gabriel. He reports that this was the view of Qatada, Ibn Jurayj and Wahb. The other commentators agree that this is the correct interpretation but none the less mention THE ALTERNATIVE VIEW, namely that the Spirit was the Messiah. Ibn Kathir gives the following report traced back by a single isnad TO THE COMPANION UBAIY:

The spirit of Jesus is one of the group of spirits with whom [God] took a pact in the time of Adam [cf. 33:7 and 7:172]. It is he, that is to say the spirit of Jesus, who presented himself to her in the form of a perfect human being. So she conceived the one who addressed her and he became incarnate in her [entering her through her mouth]. "DESPITE ITS PEDIGREE, Ibn Kathir dismisses this interpretation as reprehensible and supposes it to have been derived from the People of the Scripture." (Ibid. p. 161; bold and capital emphasis ours)

The following Muslim commentator also admits that this was an interpretation held by some of the Islamic scholars.

A majority of scholars hold the view that … (Spirit) refers to Sayyidna Jibra’il but some say that it refers to Sayyidna ‘Isa himself. Allah Ta‘ala had placed before Sayyidah Maryam the likeness of the son to be born to her. But the former version is more appropriate and is confirmed by the statement that follows. (Mufti Shafi Uthmani, Maariful Quran, Q. 19:16-21, Volume 6, p. 34; source; underline emphasis ours)

Despite the fact that Muslim expositors generally tend(ed) to reject this interpretation there is nothing within the context of the aforementioned texts which mitigates against this understanding (cf. this discussion). The only real reason why any Muslim would even oppose such an explanation is due to his/her a priori belief that Jesus is not Divine or preexistent, or that the Quran is a consistent scripture and would therefore never affirm Jesus’ Divinity or prehuman existence.

The problem, however, is that the Muslim scripture is far from being consistent since Q. 4:171 expressly says that Jesus is a Spirit from Allah and his Word which he cast into Mary, both of which clearly presuppose his prehuman existence.

The Quran on Jesus as the Preexistent Spirit of Allah

The Epistula Apostolorum: Epistle of the Apostles

I wouldn't say that Allah is Isa but one can conclude that Isa is Allah.