Christians claim the Messiah allowed himself to be crucified in order to deceive Iblis. They say he hid his divinity from Iblis, pretending to be weak and sinful so that Iblis would try to take his soul to Hell as he supposedly did with previous prophets. Then, God would trap Iblis by proving the Messiah was sinless, and thereby punish him and free humanity from his grip.
Ibn Taymiyyah’s Refutation
Ibn Taymiyyah deconstructs this story by exposing contradictions and absurdities in both logic and theology. False Assumptions About Sin and Justice
- If Iblis punished humanity for Adam’s sin, the Messiah’s human side should also be included.
- If the reason was their own sins, that invalidates the claim that it was due to Adam.
- Later generations are more sinful than the early prophets yet they are allegedly saved, and the earlier prophets punished
The Trick Doesn’t Prove Anything
Even after the crucifixion, Iblis could claim ignorance: “I didn’t know this human was united with the divine.” and punishing Iblis based on a deception would itself be unjust.
God’s Justice in The Bible and Satan Punishing The People
- Either God acts without wisdom (as some claim),
- or He is bound to justice (as others claim),
- or His justice is unique to Him.
In all three cases, the idea of punishing innocent prophets or humanity for Adam’s sin is irrational.
Prophets, who repented and are the most righteous, being punished while sinners after the Messiah are not is the opposite of justice.
If Iblis was allowed to punish people, was that just or unjust?
- If just, there was no reason to stop him.
- If unjust, why was it not stopped earlier?
- If God was unable to stop Iblis, then He is weak (a claim of disbelief).
- If He could stop him but didn’t, then the whole story of tricking Iblis is unnecessary.
Christian Theology Compared to Pagan Beliefs
- Ibn Taymiyyah shows that this Christian theology shares similarities with Magian dualism, where Iblis or “darkness” acts independently of God. This influence can be traced to figures like Mani, whose teachings blended Christianity and Zoroastrianism.
- The claim that evil is beyond God’s control mirrors pagan beliefs that God is powerless against evil forces.
The Absurdity of Crucifying God to Defeat Iblis
If the Jews crucified the Messiah, was that obedience or sin?
- If obedience, they deserve reward not condemnation.
- If sin, why didn’t God prevent it if He could?
If crucifixion was necessary to defeat Iblis, that implies God needed help or was bound by a trick to act.
The Standard of Justice Refutes the Christian Story
Ibn Taymiyyah outlines that if God is truly just:
- He does not punish people for others’ sins.
- He does not reward people for sinfully crucifying others.
- He does not need to deceive Iblis to exercise justice.
Final Critique: Why the Delay?
- If God wanted to stop Iblis’s oppression, why not unite with a human before Jesus?
- Was He unaware of Iblis’s actions (ignorance)? Or unable to stop him (weakness)?
- If it was just to stop Iblis then, it was always just. If not just then, it was never just.
Ibn Taymiyyah shows that the Christian story of crucifixion as a trick against Iblis is full of contradictions. It undermines God’s justice, power, and wisdom. It resembles pagan mythology more than prophetic revelation and cannot be reconciled with reason, scripture, or sound theology.
Translation: The Christians’ Claim about the Crucifixion as a Trick Against Iblis
The Christians say: The Messiah who is, according to them, both the divine and the human only allowed the disbelievers to crucify him in order to trick Iblis and thereby bring about his punishment. They say: He hid himself from Iblis so that Iblis would not know him, and he allowed his enemies to seize him, beat him, spit in his face, place thorns on his head, and crucify him. He showed fear of death and began saying, “My God, why have You given my enemies power over me?” all so that he could hide himself from Iblis. That way, Iblis would not know that he is God or the Son of God. And Iblis wanted to take his soul to Hell, just as he took the souls of Nuh, Ibrahim, Musa, and other prophets and believers. (This is what they claim.)
The Christian Story of Trickery and Divine Justice
Then the Lord would argue against Iblis and say: “On what basis did you take my soul, O Iblis?” Iblis would say: “Because of your sin.” Then the human side would say: “He has no sin, unlike the human parts of the prophets. They had sins for which their souls deserved to be taken to Hell. But I have no sin.”
They say: When God had established the proof against Iblis, then it became allowed for Him to take Iblis and punish him and rescue the children of Adam from being sent to Hell. But this statement includes so much falsehood and attributing injustice to God that it is too long to fully describe.
The Contradiction in Their Argument
From this is the following: that they have spoken about God’s knowledge, wisdom, and justice in a way that no one before them ever has. This can be shown in several ways:
Equating the Human Side of the Messiah with Others
First: If Iblis took the offspring of Adam because of their father’s sin, then the human part of the Messiah is no different from the rest. And if it was because of their own sins, then he did not take them because of Adam’s sin. But they say: He took them because of Adam’s sin.
Why Were the Earlier Generations Taken but Not the Later Ones?
Second: Those born after the Messiah are just like those born before him. So how can it be allowed for Iblis to seize the earlier offspring but not the later ones, even though they are equal in relation to Adam? And those who came after commit worse sins than the prophets who came before. So how can it be allowed for Iblis to punish the early prophets but not allowed for him to punish the disbelievers and tyrants who came after the Messiah?
Was Iblis Just or Unjust in Taking Them?
Third: Iblis’s taking of Adam’s offspring and placing them in Hell is either unjust or just. If it was just, then there is no blame on Iblis and there is no need to trick him to stop him from justice he deserves to carry out. In fact, he should be allowed to do this to both the earlier and later people. (That is, if it was truly justice.)
And if it was unjust, then why did God not stop him before the Messiah? If they say: He could not, then they have described God as powerless. And if they say: He could stop Iblis but chose not to, then there is no difference between stopping him at one time and not another. If it was allowed at one time, it should be allowed at all times. And if it was not allowed at one time, it should not be allowed at any time. (This shows their contradiction.)
Was There Even a Need to Trick Iblis?
Fourth: If Iblis was excused before the Messiah, then there is no need to punish him or blame him. And if he was not excused, then he deserved punishment without needing a trick to prove guilt.
No Proof Was Established Even Through the Crucifixion
Fifth: Even if the proof was not established against him before the crucifixion, it was still not established by the crucifixion. He could simply say: “I did not know that this human side belonged to the Lord. And You, O Lord, gave me permission to take all of Adam’s offspring to Hell this was just one of them. I did not know that You or Your Son were united with him. Had I known, I would have honoured him. So I am excused and You cannot wrong me.”
Even if One Was Taken Wrongfully, the Rest Can Still Be Taken
Sixth: Iblis can say: “O Lord, if I wrongfully took the soul of this one human, the rest of Adam’s children who came after him. I can still take their souls to Hell just like I took those who came before. Whether it’s due to their father’s sin or their own sins.” So if what the Christians say is true, then God has no argument left against Iblis.
Who Has the Right to Punish—God or Iblis?
Seventh: Let’s assume Adam sinned, and his children sinned due to Iblis’s temptations. Then who is responsible for punishing Adam’s children for their sins, God or Iblis? Would any sane person say that Iblis is allowed to tempt them and then punish them all without God’s permission? Isn’t this the belief of the Magians, the dualists, who say that all evil, sin, and punishment in the world comes from Iblis not from God, and God does not punish anyone for sin?
There is no doubt that this belief was passed from the Magians to the Christians, which is why they do not transmit it from any revealed book or any of the disciples. This is why the Manichaeans made their religion a mix of Christianity and Zoroastrianism. Their leader Mani was both a Christian and a Magian. So the link between Christians and Magians, and even other polytheists, is well known. (See: Shaykh Muhammad Abu Zahrah made a chapter in his book “Comparative Religion – Ancient Religions” in which he compared Buddhism and Christianity and the similarities and connections between them, from page 53 to 68. This gives a clear picture of how far Christianity has gone in its distortions, reaching a level of myths and fantasies that reason and religion both reject. It shows the extent of the tampering, lies, and fabrications, as Christianity turned into a pagan belief opposed to the religion of our father Ibrahim, peace be upon him, and all the other messengers before and after. That’s why Allah said in His Book: “They imitate the statement of those who disbelieved” (al-Baqara: 104). (Also see: “The Major Religions of India” in the Comparative Religion series by Dr Ahmad Shalabi, vol. 4, pp. 203, 206–223; the book by Shaykh Muhammad Rashid Rida, “The Belief in the Crucifixion and Atonement,” p. 163; and “The Messiah in the Sources of Christian Doctrines” by Ahmad Abdul Wahhab, p. 127.)
Was Iblis Acting with God’s Permission or Without It?
Eighth: Did Iblis punish the children of Adam and send them to Hell with God’s permission or without it? If they say it was with permission, then he has no blame and does not deserve to be tricked or punished. If it was without permission, then was it just for God to allow him to do that, or not? If it was just, then it should be allowed in all times. If not, then it should be forbidden in all times. So there is no difference between the time before and after the Messiah.
Could God Not Punish Iblis Without That Trick?
Ninth: Was God able to stop Iblis and punish him without that trick, and would that have been just? If yes, and it would have been just, then there was no need to trick Iblis or to crucify Himself or His Son. If justice required punishing Iblis, then it should have been done without that trick. If it was not required, then it would have been allowed to let him do it at all times so again, no difference between different times.
And if they say: God was not able to stop Iblis, then they are claiming God is weak and this is among the greatest forms of disbelief by agreement of all religions. It is the same as the claim of the dualists who say: the Light could not stop the Darkness from evil. And similar to what Democritus and the Hananites said, who claimed that the Necessary Being could not stop the soul from being joined with matter it happened without His will. (Democritus: a philosopher of ancient Greece, a wise man and a doctor, born around 460 BC. He studied philosophy and had a group of students. He was wealthy, travelled widely, and finally settled in Athens. He wrote about natural sciences, astronomy, ethics, mathematics, and geometry. See: “Akhbar al-Ulama bi-Akhbar al-Hukama,” p. 124, Egypt edition; and “Greek Philosophers from Thales to Socrates” by Dr Ja‘far al-Yasin, p. 128, 2nd ed., 1975. As for the Hananites, this is how it appears in all manuscripts, but I did not find a biography for him, so perhaps the name is distorted Allah knows best.)
Was Crucifying the Messiah a Sin or Obedience to God?
Tenth: What the Jews did to him crucifying him was that obedience to God or sin? If it was obedience, then the Jews who crucified him deserve reward and honour like all those who obey God. But the Christians are agreed that those Jews were among the worst sinners and the most evil of people. They go to extreme lengths in seeking their blood and cursing them, especially during their fasts and in the days resembling the crucifixion.
If those Jews were sinners, then was God able to stop them or not? If He could not, then He was also unable to stop Iblis from oppressing people in the future. And if He could, then He was able to stop Iblis without any trick. And if letting them commit that sin was good, then letting Iblis oppress people in the past and future was also good so again, no need for any trick.
The Contradictions in Their Excuse for Rejecting the Truth
Know that the ways to show the falsehood of the Christian religion are too many to count. The more a person understands their belief and its consequences, the more its falsehood becomes clear. But the point here is to show their contradiction: they make excuses for rejecting God’s book, messenger, and religion by claiming that He is just and does not command people with what they are unable to do yet they themselves attribute to Him more injustice than anyone from among the children of Adam ever did.
The Last Argument: What is the Standard of Justice?
This can be made clearer: Either one says, as the Jahmiyyah who believe in compulsion do, that God does whatever He wants without wisdom or reason or concern for justice.
Or one says, as the Qadariyyah do, that He is obligated to act with justice just like the creation.
Or one says: He is just and pure from injustice, but His justice is not like the justice of creation.
These are the three main views.
If one says the first: then it would be allowed for Him to give Iblis power over all people without sin and punish them all without sin and there would be no need to trick Iblis at all.
If one says the second: then it is known that if a person had a servant who told another to commit a sin hated by the master, and that person did it, then the just thing is to punish both the one who commanded and the one who obeyed. But giving the wrongdoer power to punish all the children of the one who obeyed is not just. Likewise, giving a wrongdoer power over all of Adam’s children, who did not commit their father’s sin, is not justice.
And if someone says: Iblis deserved to enslave them because their father obeyed him, then he also deserves to enslave both the early and later generations, and no one should stop him.
And if they say: He only deserved to take them because of their own sins, then he also deserves to take the early and the later ones.
And if they say: He was stopped only because he tried to take the human side of the Messiah, then even if that was a sin, it was one of his lesser sins, because he didn’t know that this was God’s human part. And if someone tried to enslave a man thinking he was from a group he was allowed to enslave, but he turned out not to be, that wouldn’t be a sin that blocks him from enslaving the rest.
And if someone says: God’s justice is not like ours but that He never reduces anyone’s good deeds and never punishes anyone except for their own sins then He should not punish Adam’s children for Adam’s sin, nor punish the prophets for sins they repented from. Prophets are protected from persisting in sin, so when they die, they die without a sin deserving punishment. So how can they be punished after death for their father’s sin if it’s even correct that he died insisting on sin, which is false? And even if they had sins, they repented, so they do not deserve punishment. So those after the Messiah, who are not prophets, deserve it even more. So how is it just to punish the prophets but not punish those beneath them especially disbelievers?
Why Not Use Another Human Before the Messiah to Stop Iblis?
Twelfth: If God wanted to stop Iblis’s injustice, why didn’t He unite with the human side of one of Adam’s children before the Messiah to trick Iblis and stop him from harming earlier people? Stopping greater harm is better than stopping lesser harm. Didn’t God know that Iblis would do all this evil? If He didn’t, that’s calling Him ignorant. And if He knew and didn’t stop it, that’s calling Him weak. And if not stopping it was justice, then it is justice in every time. So what is the difference between one time and another?
Jawab Al Sahih (2/108-116)
