Many non-Muslims are surprised
to find out that according to Muslim belief, Jesus, the son of
Mary, is one of the greatest messengers of God. Muslims are taught
to love Jesus, and a person cannot be a Muslim without believing
in the virgin birth and miracles of Jesus Christ, peace be upon
him. Muslims believe these things about Jesus not because of the
Bible or any other religion, but simply because the Holy Qur'an
says these things about him. However, Muslims always emphasize
that the miracles of Jesus, and all other prophets, were by "God's
permission". This having been said, many Christians feel to not
believe that Jesus is the "Son of God", "God Incarnate"
or the "Third Person" of the Trinity. This is because the
Qur'an clearly says that Almighty God does not have a "Son"
--- neither allegorically, physically, metaphorically or
metaphysically. The Pure Monotheism of Islam rejects the notion of
"defining" God (which is basically what the "Doctrine of
the Trinity" does), saying that someone is "like" God
or equal to him, or praying to someone else besides God. Also,
Islam teaches that titles such as "Lord" and "Savior"
are due to God alone. In order to avoid misunderstanding, it
should be clarified that when Muslims criticize the Bible or the
teachings of Christianity, they are not attacking "God's Word"
or Jesus Christ, peace be upon him. From the Muslim point of view,
they are defending Jesus and God's Word --- which they have in the
form of the Qur'an. Muslim criticism is targeted at writings that
some people claim are God's word, but Muslim's simply don't
accept their claim that they are really God's word in
toto. Additionally, Christian doctrines such as the Trinity
and the Atonement are criticized by Muslims precisely because they
did not originate from Jesus, peace be upon him. In this way,
Muslims are the true followers of Jesus, peace be upon him,
because they defend him from the exaggerations of the Christians
and teach the Pure Monotheism that Jesus himself followed.