Quran 9:30 – ‘…May Allah Destroy Them’ – ‘Son Of God’

𝐐𝐮𝐫𝐚𝐧 (𝟗:𝟑𝟎) – ‘…𝐌𝐚𝐲 𝐀𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐡 𝐃𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐲 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐦’ – ‘𝐒𝐨𝐧 𝐎𝐟 𝐆𝐨𝐝’

Mohamad Mostafa Nassar
Twitter:@NassarMohamadMR

Quran 9:30 “And the Jews say: Ezra is the son of Allah; and the Christians say: The Messiah is the son of Allah; these are the words of their mouths; they imitate the saying of those who disbelieved before; may Allah destroy them; how they are turned away!”

How does the above verse encourage Muslims to fight physically? Allah rebukes those who hold on to pagan beliefs. Allah strongly rebukes those who say the term ‘Son of God’. Those who say such are far away from the path of Monotheism. I would like to mention that, when Allah condemns Jews for saying such,

I should highlight to viewers that this belief was held only by a minority in Arabia. Jews in general don’t believe that Ezra is the ‘Son of God’.

I don’t want to elaborate any further. We have written a detailed article on Ezra being called the ‘Son of God’ in Arabia, in following article titled: “Ezra (Uzayr) The ‘Son Of God’” As for Christians believing Jesus is the ‘Son of God’, the meaning has changed overtime as Christians started mingling pagan Roman/Greek beliefs into their Christian faith.

For someone to be called ‘Son of God’ in the first century, when Jesus (p) was alive, it only meant the man was righteous, a person who is good, a servant of God. I have already written an article on the term ‘Son of God’ used for Jesus in detail, you can read it here.

Jews about Ezra “Son of God”?

• [9:30] The Jews say: “Ezra (‘Uzayr) is Allah’s son, “and the Christians say: “The Messiah is the son of Allah.” These are merely verbal assertions in imitation of the sayings of those unbelievers who preceded them. May Allah ruin them. How do they turn away from the Truth?

Did Some Jews say or believe at some point that Ezra is son of God?

Yes, it’s mentioned in the Glorious Quran and non-Muslim scholars have verified that, there were jews in Medina who believed so. Since no jew left in Medina after advent of Islam so only Islamic scriptures cited this historical evidence in writings.

Refer to Authors of the 1906 Jewish Encyclopedia viewed the Quranic reference as a “malevolent metaphor” for the reverence accorded to Ezra in Judaism

(SOURCE

Kaufmann Kohler; Ignatz Goldziher (1906). “Islam”. Jewish

Encyclopedia. Retrieved 14 October 2015

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Some modern historians have favored the theory that a Jewish sect in Arabia venerated Ezra to the extent of deifying him.

●SOURCE

Mun’im Sirry (2014). Scriptural Polemics: The Qur’an and Other

Religions. Oxford University Press. p. 48.

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Gordon Darnell Newby has suggested that the Quranic expression may have reflected Ezra’s possible designation as one of the Bene Elohim (lit. sons of God) by Jews of the Hejaz.

●SOURCE

. D. Newby, A History of The Jews Of Arabia, 1988, University Of

South Carolina Press, p. 59 (quoted in Was `Uzayr (Ezra) Called The

Son Of God? by M S M Saifullah & Mustafa Ahmed

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Other scholars proposed emendations of the received spelling of the name, leading to readings ‘Uzayl (‘Azazel), ‘Azīz, or Azariah (Abednego).

●SOURCE

Comerro, Viviane (2005). “Esdras est-il le fils de Dieu?”. Arabica. 52

(2): 165–181.

doi 10.1163/1570058053640321. JSTOR 4057793

Commentary

Tafsir al-Jalalayn

The Jews say: Ezra is the son of God; and the Christians say: The Messiah, Jesus, is the son of God. That is the utterance of their mouths, for which they have no support, nay, imitating the utterances of those who disbelieved before [them], from among their forefathers, mimicking them. God assail, curse, them! How they are deviated!, turned away from the truth, despite the proofs having been established. [1]

References:

Ezra (Uzayr) The ‘Son Of God’?