5:16-17
5:16
Wherewith Allah guideth all who seek His good pleasure to ways of peace and safety, and leadeth them out of darkness, by His will, unto the light, – guideth them to a path that is straight.
5:17
In blasphemy indeed are those that say that Allah is Christ the son of Mary. Say: “Who then hath the least power against Allah, if His will were to destroy Christ the son of Mary, his mother, and all every – one that is on the earth. For to Allah belongeth the ominion of the heavens and the earth, and all that is between. He createth what He pleaseth. For Allah hath power over all things.”
This Qur’anic verse is among several passages that critique the Christian belief in the divinity of Jesus (see Qur’an 4:171; 5:72, 75, 116; 9:31). In the verse, Jesus is referred to simply as the Messiah (al-Masīḥ), and the mention of his mother Mary also implies criticism of those who attribute divine status to her (see also Qur’an 5:116). The Qur’an rejects the divinity of both Jesus and Mary by emphasizing God’s absolute creative and destructive power. The argument presented is that God has the power to destroy the Messiah, his mother, and all who inhabit the earth, demonstrating that they are created beings subject to God’s will rather than divine entities themselves.
The verse further reinforces this argument through the statement “He creates whatsoever He wills”, which appears in other Qur’anic passages as well (see Qur’an 24:45; 30:54; 42:49). Classical commentators explain that this phrase emphasizes God’s unrestricted creative power, indicating that He may create in any manner He chooses. Thus, the miraculous birth of Jesus without a biological father does not imply divinity but rather reflects God’s ability to create in extraordinary ways (al-Rāzī, n.d.; al-Zamakhsharī, n.d.). In this respect, Jesus and Mary remain part of creation and are not fundamentally different from other human beings.
The verse also includes the rhetorical expression “Who would have any power over God?”, translated from the Arabic phrase fa-man yamliku min Allāhi shayʾan. The verb yamliku literally means “to own” or “to possess,” and by extension implies control or authority. This expression is contrasted in the verse with the declaration that “unto God belongs sovereignty” (li’Llāhi al-mulk), where mulk (“sovereignty” or dominion) derives from the same linguistic root as yamliku. The linguistic contrast underscores that ultimate authority and ownership belong solely to God.
By highlighting God’s universal creative power over all beings, the verse implicitly challenges the Christian theological doctrine that Christ was not created. In classical Christian theology, particularly as articulated in the Nicene Creed, Christ is described as “begotten, not made.” The Qur’anic argument counters this claim by asserting that Jesus, like all other beings, is a creation of God.
Some Muslim theologians also addressed the nature of the Qur’an’s critique of Christian doctrine. Commentators such as al-Zamakhsharī and al-Rāzī observed that the Qur’an appears to criticize the claim that “God is the Messiah.” They note that this statement may not precisely reflect official Christian theological formulations, which often state that the Messiah is divine but do not necessarily claim that God in His entirety is identical with the Messiah. Nevertheless, these scholars argue that Christian doctrines concerning the incarnation of God in Christ and the attribution of divine authority to Jesus ultimately lead to a theological position that closely resembles the claim rejected by the Qur’an (al-Zamakhsharī; al-Rāzī).
References:
Nasr, Hossein (2015). Study Quran.