As salamu alaykum wa rahmatu Allahi wa barakatuh, brothers and sisters, I have a few questions about the Christian doctrine of the Trinity, which I am hoping would be answered/confirmed from a Sunni Kalam perspective. Christians claim that God is one essence in three persons. It appears that they define God as essence/being (ousia) attributed with omnipotence/power, eternity, life, etc. They define person/hypostasis as comprised of memories, will, emotions, etc. They contend that these three hypostases are still one being, as much as a human being with multiple personalities is still one human being, or as much as there are three heads for one Cerberus. It is quite clear that God cannot be attributed with emotions or memories (He is attributed with Knowledge which is not subject to increase or decrease), since these are created attributes subject to change, so their argument is immediately debunked. However, Christians will just switch to some other attributes for their claimed hypostases and still seem to get away with a sense that these three are still one being, hence, still one God. Can we Muslims say that there is nothing three about God, because three is a number indicating possibility, while God is a necessary existence, and He is One, but not a number? Can we say, why not four, five, or six hypostases, without them resorting to forced interpretations from their corrupted books that only three hypostases can be discerned therein? Can we also say that, given that they claim attributes for the essence which are separate from the attributes of the claimed hypostases, there would be four attributed, and not three, as per their doctrine? Lastly, can we refute them by saying that each of their claimed hypostases can never be God because these three are claimed to have separate wills which are in perfect agreement, while Gods attribute of Will is not subject to division, multiplication or distribution, and cannot be subject to agreeing with another will? I would appreciate your views on these, and if you could suggest better responses to those mentioned above. Jazak Allahu khayran.
Posted on: Mon, 03 Mar 2014 23:54:31 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015