In "Say not three", Is Mary God?
The Qur'an says not to believe in the trinity, by asserting "say not three":
"O people of the Book, be not excessive in your Faith, and do not say about Allah anything but the truth.The MasīH ‘Īsā, the son of Maryam, is only a Messenger of Allah, and His Word that He had delivered to Maryam, and a spirit from Him. So, believe in Allah and His Messengers. Do not say “Three”. Stop it. That is good for you. Allah is the only One God. He is far too pure to have a son. To Him belongs what is in the heavens and what is in the earth. And Allah is enough to trust in." Qur'an 4:171, Usmani
But which three is the Qur'an talking about? The Qur'an does not explicitly deny the Holy Spirit as God. Many Muslims instead reinterpret it as the angel Gabriel. The following verse accuses Christians of taking Mary as a god:
"And when Allah said, “O ‘Īsā, son of Maryam, did you say to the people: ‘Take me and my mother as gods beside Allah?” He said, “Pure are You, it does not behoove me to say what is not right for me. Had I said it, You would have known it. You know what is in my heart, and I do not know what is in Your’s. You alone have full knowledge of all that is unseen." Qur'an 5:116, Usmani
The "three" mentioned in this verse are not Father, Son and Holy Spirit, but Allah, Isa (Jesus) and Mary. Regarding Jesus and Mary on equal par with Allah was regarded not right. This line of argument of criticizing association of Mary with God is also found in 5:72-75.
A little below in this passage, belief in this "trinity" is shown to attract divine judgment:
"If You punish them, they are Your slaves after all, but if You forgive them, You are the Mighty, the Wise.” Qur'an 5:118, Usmani
This passage is about the judgment day, as surah 5:119 shows:
"Allah will say, "This is a day on which the truth of the truthful shall benefit for them. For them there are gardens beneath which rivers flow, where they will live forever. Allah is well-pleased with them and they are well-pleased with Him. That is the great achievement." " Qur'an 5:119, Usmani
Muhammad obviously thought that Christians were taking Mary as god. Furthermore, Qur'an says that this is what will be judged on the judgment day, not revering the Holy Spirit. No Christian denomination believes that Mary is God today. Muhammad appears to be attacking a straw man.
Was Jesus Raised or Did He Die?
Surah 4:157 is a well-known verse used to deny Jesus' death on the cross, but in context of the rest of the Qur'an, does this claim really make sense? Death was expected of the messengers of Allah:
"Christ the son of Mary was no more than a messenger; many were the messengers that passed away before him. His mother was a woman of truth. They had both to eat their (daily) food. See how Allah doth make His signs clear to them; yet see in what ways they are deluded away from the truth!" Surah 5:75, Yusuf Ali
This verse talk of many who, like Jesus, were according to the Qur'an messengers but "who had passed away before him". This is a peculiar comparison with Jesus, for in the Qur'an Jesus never passed away. According to surah 3:55, he was raised straight to heaven instead of dying on the cross:
"When Allah said: “O ‘Īsā , I am to take you in full and to raise you towards Myself, and to cleanse you of those who disbelieve, and to place those who follow you above those who disbelieve up to the Day of Doom. Then to Me is your return, whereupon I shall judge between you in that over which you have differed." Qur'an 3:55, Usmani
Actually many of the English translations are not accurate. In the Arabic, it doesn't just say "raise you towards Myself" but first uses an Arabic word مُتَوَفِّيكَ (mutawaffi-ka) which, though metaphorical in nature, does not mean "take you" but "cause you to die". You can find the word translated as "die" in several translations of the Qur'an (Muhammad Asad, Wahiduddin Khan, Safi Kaskas and Shabbir Ahmed).
This is devastating for anyone who believes that Jesus didn't die.
Some more in-depth analysis of this issue is here.
One Who Eats Cannot Be God?
Some claim that Jesus was not God, because Jesus ate food. The objection is that Jesus had a human need, but God being omnipotent, had no needs that he cannot himself fulfill. If Jesus then needs foods, he could not be God. Is this solid logic?
According to the Qur'an, Allah too had needs. He needed to preserve his words into a tablet:
"The reality is that it is the glorious Qur’ān, (recorded) in the Preserved Tablet (LauH MaHfūZ)." Surah 85:21-22, Usmani
The preserved tablet was not given to Muhammad, so it must have been in Allah's possession.
Why does Allah even need to preserve his work in a tablet? Doesn't an omniscient Allah have a perfect memory? He doesn't NEED the tablet, although he was in possession of it. In the same way, Jesus didn't NEED food.
Allah also has other needs. He apparently needed worshipers. In Qur'an 55:56, Allah created jinn and man for them to worship him. Allah also needs people to sin. In Sahih Muslim, Allah is said to need people to commit sins and to ask for forgiveness:
"Abu Huraira reported Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) having said:
By Him in Whose Hand is my life, if you were not to commit sin, Allah would sweep you out of existence and He would replace (you by) those people who would commit sin and seek forgiveness from Allah, and He would have pardoned them." Sahih Muslim 2749
(Link to this and similar hadith here.) If people were not to sin, Allah would destroy them and create another people. This need is completely unnecessary for an all powerful God.
So Allah has needs. If needs prove one is not God, then Allah cannot possibly be God.
(The above argument is based on the Christian Prince video "What is the Islamic logic to reject the trinity".)
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