The Trinity and Tawhid: How Christians and Muslims Speak of One God

Ask a Christian and a Muslim how many gods there are, and both will give the same answer: one. Yet the way they describe that one God is the deepest difference between the two faiths. This article tries to explain both beliefs fairly — the Trinity as Christians understand it, and tawhid (the oneness of God) as Muslims understand it — so that each can be heard on its own terms.

What both faiths affirm

Christians and Muslims share a great deal of what they say about God. He is the eternal Creator of everything, without beginning or end. He is all-knowing, all-powerful, just and merciful. He hears prayer, sends prophets and will judge the world. Both faiths stand against idolatry and the worship of many gods.

Christians themselves stress this. The Nicene Creed, recited in churches around the world, opens by confessing belief “in one God”. No mainstream Christian church teaches that there are three gods. When Muslims and Christians disagree, then, they are not disagreeing about whether God is one, but about what His oneness means.

The Trinity as Christians explain it

The doctrine of the Trinity teaches that the one God exists eternally as three persons — the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. They are not three parts of God, nor three gods, but one divine being. Christians believe that the Son became human as Jesus of Nazareth, fully God and fully man.

The doctrine was given its classical wording by the church councils of Nicaea (325) and Constantinople (381), but Christians see it as the faithful summary of their scriptures. They point to passages such as Jesus’ command to baptise “in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost” (Matthew 28:19, KJV), and to the opening of John’s Gospel: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1, KJV). Many Christians speak of the Trinity as a mystery — revealed by God, not invented by human reason, and never fully grasped by it.

Tawhid as Muslims explain it

Tawhid means “making one”. It is the first and most important teaching of Islam: God (in Arabic, Allah) is one in His being, unique in His names and qualities, and the only one worthy of worship. He has no partner, no equal, no parent and no child, and nothing in creation shares in His divinity (see God Is One).

For this reason the Qur’an speaks directly about the Trinity and about Jesus. In one striking passage, it describes a scene on the Day of Judgment in which God asks Jesus whether he ever told people to worship him and his mother:

وَإِذْ قَالَ ٱللَّهُ يَٰعِيسَى ٱبْنَ مَرْيَمَ ءَأَنتَ قُلْتَ لِلنَّاسِ ٱتَّخِذُونِى وَأُمِّىَ إِلَٰهَيْنِ مِن دُونِ ٱللَّهِ ۖ قَالَ سُبْحَٰنَكَ مَا يَكُونُ لِىٓ أَنْ أَقُولَ مَا لَيْسَ لِى بِحَقٍّ ۚ إِن كُنتُ قُلْتُهُۥ فَقَدْ عَلِمْتَهُۥ ۚ تَعْلَمُ مَا فِى نَفْسِى وَلَآ أَعْلَمُ مَا فِى نَفْسِكَ ۚ إِنَّكَ أَنتَ عَلَّٰمُ ٱلْغُيُوبِ ﴿١١٦﴾ مَا قُلْتُ لَهُمْ إِلَّا مَآ أَمَرْتَنِى بِهِۦٓ أَنِ ٱعْبُدُوا۟ ٱللَّهَ رَبِّى وَرَبَّكُمْ ۚ وَكُنتُ عَلَيْهِمْ شَهِيدًۭا مَّا دُمْتُ فِيهِمْ ۖ فَلَمَّا تَوَفَّيْتَنِى كُنتَ أَنتَ ٱلرَّقِيبَ عَلَيْهِمْ ۚ وَأَنتَ عَلَىٰ كُلِّ شَىْءٍۢ شَهِيدٌ ﴿١١٧﴾

¹¹⁶And [beware the Day] when Allah will say, "O Jesus, Son of Mary, did you say to the people, 'Take me and my mother as deities besides Allah?'" He will say, "Exalted are You! It was not for me to say that to which I have no right. If I had said it, You would have known it. You know what is within myself, and I do not know what is within Yourself. Indeed, it is You who is Knower of the unseen. ¹¹⁷I said not to them except what You commanded me - to worship Allah, my Lord and your Lord. And I was a witness over them as long as I was among them; but when You took me up, You were the Observer over them, and You are, over all things, Witness.

Muslims find this passage moving rather than hostile. Jesus is not accused; he is the one who clears himself, and his answer is the message of every prophet: worship Allah, my Lord and your Lord.

The Word and the Spirit

Christians reading the Qur’an are often surprised that it also calls Jesus a word from God and a spirit from Him (Qur’an 4:171). The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ even made this part of the testimony of faith:

…If anyone testifies that None has the right to be worshipped but Allah Alone Who has no partners, and that Muhammad is His Slave and His Apostle, and that Jesus is Allah's Slave and His Apostle and His Word which He bestowed on Mary and a Spirit created by Him, and that Paradise is true, and Hell is true, Allah will admit him into Paradise…

Here lies a real meeting point, and a real difference. Both faiths link Jesus with God’s Word. For Christians, the Word in John 1:1 is God the Son, eternal and uncreated. For Muslims, Jesus is called God’s Word because he came into being through God’s creative command, “Be” — just as Adam did:

إِنَّ مَثَلَ عِيسَىٰ عِندَ ٱللَّهِ كَمَثَلِ ءَادَمَ ۖ خَلَقَهُۥ مِن تُرَابٍۢ ثُمَّ قَالَ لَهُۥ كُن فَيَكُونُ ﴿٥٩﴾

Indeed, the example of Jesus to Allah is like that of Adam. He created Him from dust; then He said to him, "Be," and he was.

How Muslims read the words of Jesus

Muslims believe that the message of Jesus was the same as that of Moses and every prophet before him (see One Message, All the Prophets). They are moved by Gospel passages in which Jesus speaks of God as the one who sent him, such as his prayer: “And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent” (John 17:3, KJV).

Christians, of course, read the same verses differently, understanding them in the light of the whole New Testament and the creeds. We do not pretend that one verse settles the question. What Muslims ask is simply that the Qur’an’s understanding of Jesus — a mighty prophet, the Messiah, God’s servant and messenger — be heard as an expression of love for him, not as a belittling of him.

Why the difference matters

For Muslims, tawhid is not an abstract theory. It means that every prayer goes directly to God, without any intermediary, and that no created being — however honoured — is worshipped beside Him. Associating anything with God in worship, called shirk, is the one wrong the Qur’an treats most seriously. That is why Muslims cannot accept the Trinity, while still loving and honouring Jesus and his mother.

For Christians, the Trinity is equally central: it is how they understand God’s love, the incarnation and salvation. Pretending that this difference is small would not honour either faith.

Talking about God together

Christians and Muslims will not resolve this question in one conversation, and they do not need to in order to be friends, neighbours and partners in doing good. But they can understand each other better — and discover how much they already share in their reverence for the one Creator. To go further, read Is Allah the Same God Christians Worship? and Who Is Jesus in Islam?