Jesus Cannot Be Son of God Because God Has No "Wife"

Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) stands out as a foremost theologian and philosopher within the Catholic tradition. His contributions significantly shaped the development of Catholic theology and, more broadly, the Western intellectual heritage. By striving to unify the disciplines of theology and philosophy, he established a distinct philosophical framework known as Thomism.

One of the most prominent works of Aquinas is a book called "The Summa Contra Gentiles," which was written to defend Christian truth against the objections raised by non-Christians, particularly Muslims and Jews.

In the book, Aquinas made some seriously prejudiced observations about Islam and Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. He later maintained most of his views in another smaller book titled "Reasons for the Faith Against Muslim Objections."

This article seeks to respond to one of those prejudices, namely an accusation that Muslims are foolish for believing that Jesus cannot be Son of God because God has no wife.

Labeling Muslims as "fools" and people of "modest wisdom"

Aquinas criticized Muslims, referring to them as "fools" and people of "modest wisdom" for believing that Jesus cannot be the Son of God because God has no wife. He connects this accusation to the essence of another claim of his: that Muslims are carnal or pleasure-loving people-a lens through which, he argues, they tend to observe and judge virtually everything.

He said: "Muslims are silly in ridiculing us for holding that Christ is the Son of the living God, as if God had a wife. Since they are carnal, they can think only of what is flesh and blood. For any wise man can observe that the mode of generation is not the same for everything, but generation applies to each thing according to the special manner of its nature. In animals it is by copulation of male and female; in plants it is by pollination or generation, and in other things in other ways."

Putting it another way, Aquinas thinks that Muslims reject the idea of God having a Son because they cannot think beyond the limits of the world of physical desires they are immersed in and its laws of procreation. He claims that Muslims believe God must have a wife and be involved in a physical relationship to have a Son.

However, being personally ignorant about Islam-its history and civilization-Aquinas was only able to articulate what he had previously heard from early pioneers of Islamophobia. He had no access to original Islamic texts, whether in translation or otherwise, from which to draw his own conclusions.

He ought to have sensed that something was amiss in the material he was engaging with, as such accusations are both improper and abominable. His inquiry should have been guided solely by the pursuit of truth, employing appropriate methods and following the evidence wherever it led. Since he failed to do so, his style betrays an Islamophobic posture and undermines the credibility of his views on Islam.

The crux of the accusation

What is intended in the above allegation is the following verse of the Qur'an: "(He, Allah, is) Originator of the heavens and the earth. How could He have a son when He does not have a 'sahibah' and He created all things? And He is, of all things, Knowing" (al-An'am 101).

Understanding the word "sahibah" in the above verse is crucial. It is usually translated as "companion," "consort," "associate," "fellow," "partner" and "comrade." The word is sometimes interpreted as "wife," though this is partly a misunderstanding and partly a metaphorical way to capture the nuanced subtleties of everyday life.

The Qur'anic words "zawjah" and "imra'ah" for wife

Based on Qur'anic terminology, two terms are used for wife: "zawjah" and "imra'ah." The former embodies the qualities expected from a wife, as she is a mate, helpmate, supporter, best friend, ally and other half-a vital segment of a person's existence with whom life's purpose is fulfilled and the deepest recesses of life are explored and valued.

That is to say, "zawjah" makes a person complete and fully equipped to live life to the fullest and succeed in his terrestrial mission. Hence, the most prominent word in Arabic for marriage is "zawaj" which comes from the root words "zawwaja" and "tazawwaja," meaning "to marry" and "to get married" respectively. The word is used when the marital relationship is intact, harmonious, and ideologically aligned.

As a result, for example, Hawwaʾ (Eve) is consistently referred to as Prophet Adam's "zawjah"; the wives of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, honored as the Mothers of the Believers, are called "azwaj" (the plural of "zawjah"); and the inhabitants of Paradise (Jannah) are promised companionship in the form of "azwaj."

The word "imra'ah," on the other hand, apart from "wife," also means "woman" and "person." The Qur'an uses this term only when referring to the institution of marriage as a conventional biological practice and when marriage is not ideal for various reasons.

As if the Qur'an wishes to remind us that marriage, as a natural result of an innate impulse, is a potential that should be nurtured to its fullest. This process allows mere "persons" and "men and women (human beings)" to unite in a harmonious relationship, transforming them into exemplary husbands and wives. This way, in an ideal marriage, an "imra'ah" progresses in her status and role and becomes a "zawjah."

Furthermore, the Qur'an uses the word "imra'ah" to indicate an imperfect or unstable marriage, suggesting that instead of being two balancing parts of a whole, husband and wife have become two nearly separate entities. In this case, "zawjah" has been downgraded to "imra'ah," and the only things binding the two are related to convenience, practicality, certain biological interests and benefits.

In short, "imra'ah" is employed when the marital bond is strained, deficient, malfunctioning, ideologically divided, or when the woman's role is emphasized independently of her husband. For that reason, the wives of Abu Lahab, Pharaoh, Prophet Lut, Prophet Nuh, Prophet Zakariyya before he was blessed with his son Yahya, Prophet Ibrahim before the birth of his son Ishaq with Sarah, and ʿImran before he was blessed with Maryam-the mother of Prophet 'Isa-are all referred to as "imra'ah."

These marriages were marked, either temporarily or permanently, and to varying degrees, by non-alliance and disjunction. They symbolized misunderstandings and rifts-emotional, psychological, or spiritual-and evoked a sense of imperfection.

Allah's absolute Oneness (tawhid) cannot be compromised in any way

In the quoted Qur'anic verse, which has been manipulated by Aquinas and others, the Qur'an does not use the terms "zawjah" or "imra'ah." Therefore, the concept of "wife" in the conventional sense is not intended. So, what does the verse mean?

The message of the verse is that Allah is the Originator of the universe and the Creator of everything within it. His Oneness, Uniqueness, Independence and Distinctiveness are absolute and His transcendence with respect to the features and properties of the created realm must be maintained. Allah does not need anything or anyone from His creation to live, function, reveal His messages and signs, or manifest His attributes. He is Self-Subsisting, Self-Existing, Self-Sufficient, Omnipresent, Omniscient and Omnipotent.

Ascribing a son to Almighty Allah, as Christians do in the context of the Holy Trinity, is a violation of Allah's transcendent nature and attributes. In Christianity, the Father is seen as the eternal, omnipotent Creator, and Jesus, born of his mother Mary, is viewed as the incarnate Son of God. This belief renders Jesus both fully God and fully man, possessing two complete and distinct natures simultaneously. Such an association signifies the forbidden type of connection between the Creator and His creation, where anything from one becomes, in any way or degree, part of the other, whether as a need or a want, as spontaneity, or as a sign of love and compassion.

The meaning of "sahibah"

This relationship between the Creator and His creation in Christianity-represented by Jesus and the hypostatic union (Jesus' dual nature and role)-is understood as a type and degree of association, attachment, fellowship, companionship, comradeship, bond, union, incorporation and partnership, all of which are encompassed by the word "sahibah." If Islam prohibits such a relationship, it also prevents the possibility of Allah having a "sahibah," which, yet again, holds no relevance to the conventional idea of "wife."

Thus, the lesson of the quoted verse is: how can Allah - the Originator of the heavens and the earth, the Creator of everything and the Self-Sufficient One to whom nothing is comparable - have a Son, one way or another relatable to the created world, when Allah has no such relationship, association, or attachment with the world, even in the realm of ideas?

Otherwise stated, Allah does not have a Son because He has no "sahibah." His Being and Attributes are such that He requires no affiliations, attachments, or expediencies in relation to creation that might necessitate the existence and ultimate sacrifice of a holy Son to fulfill relational associations or metaphysical connections.

The term "sahibah" is thus employed to categorically negate the possibility of the anthropomorphic attributes of Allah. It is a theological and eschatological term, not a social one. Hence, the Qur'anic rejection is not of the notion of a "wife" of Allah per se, but of any relational framework-broadly understood as "sahibah"-that underpins the Christian doctrine of divine sonship and the Trinitarian worldview.

The absurdity of the Trinity

Indeed, the very notions of the Trinity, fatherhood and incarnation, along with the crucifixion, death, resurrection, ascension and second coming of Jesus, all oppose the idea of divine transcendence. They are compressed within the compass of an unauthorized blending of earthly and heavenly dominions.

The riskiest intersection is the canon of "sahibah." Inasmuch as Christians affirmed the inevitability of a "sahibah," it was not difficult for them to elevate the case of Jesus to the dais of the Son of God. Muslims, in contrast, repudiate both possibilities, chiefly the idea of a "sahibah" as the root cause of any potential violation of the fundamental principle of Allah's Oneness (tawhid).

The association or correlation between God the Father and Jesus the Son-between the transcendent and temporal realms-based on a need, want, compulsion, affection, or benevolence is expressed in the Qur'an through a feminine present participle ("sahibah"), derived from the verb "sahiba," which means "to accompany, to consort, to connect, to join, and to be with somebody or something."

This is in order to give more sense to the reciprocity of the God-Jesus and Father-Son relationship and to simplify it for better human grasp. With this, the fallacy of the Trinity is exposed and made easily understandable, unlike Christians and their theologians who keep beating around the bush, making the issue more confusing and its errors more obscured, leaving many people unsuspectingly gullible.

The Trinity, on that account, has earned a notorious reputation for being a complex mystery that requires irrational faith, as all human efforts to understand it through reason are bound to fail. It is not surprising that St. Augustine's first sentence in his book "On the Trinity" states: "The following dissertation concerning the Trinity, as the reader ought to be informed, has been written in order to guard against the sophistries of those who disdain to begin with faith and are deceived by a crude and perverse love of reason."

"Sahibah" and the agony of the Day of Judgement

Finally, the Qur'an mentions the word "sahibah" only four times: twice in relation to the rejected Christian belief that Jesus is the Son of God, and twice in the context of the Day of Judgment. On that Day, each person will run away from everybody as he will have enough concern of his own to make him indifferent to the others, including from his "sahibah" ('Abasa 36-37). Additionally, the criminal will wish that he could be ransomed from the punishment of that Day by sacrificing everyone including his "sahibah" (al-Ma'arij 11-14).

In the latter two instances, "sahibah" is understood as "wife." However, the context is the Day of Judgment, a completely different realm where earthly relationships and associations, above all concerning non-believers and during the meticulous judgment processes, will account for nothing.

Wife is called "sahibah" just to indicate that on Judgment Day, she is neither "zawjah" nor "imra'ah," but only someone whose symbolic association, attachment and union with a person in this new environment will be temporary and solely for the purpose of settling scores and passing judgments. To be "sahibah" implies the faintest, rather figurative, level of a matrimonial (unified and interdependent) relationship.

Beyond that, the two individuals-a husband and wife-will have nothing deeper and essential in common on the Day of Judgment. Their relationship will be circumstantial, conditioned and trans-dimensional (related to both this world and the Hereafter), similar to the quintessence of the relationship between God the Father and Jesus Christ as the Son of God. For this reason, the Qur'an uses the word "sahibah" for both situations.