Home > Arguments about God's nature - contradictions
"In Islam, Allah's power is limitless, but it doesn't extend to doing things that are inherently illogical or contradictory because such actions don't reflect true capability—they're absurdities. The Qur'an portrays Allah as the All-Wise, the All-Knowing—'He is the Exalted in Might, the Wise' (Surah Luqman, 31:9). His actions align with His perfect nature, not with nonsense like making a square circle or being both infinite and finite. Tawhid emphasizes His rational perfection: He is One, consistent, and free from flaws.
In the Trinity, the idea of God being one yet three distinct persons, or dying yet remaining eternal, seems to embrace contradictions. If God can't do the illogical, how can He be both fully human and fully divine, mortal and immortal? Islam avoids this: Allah's oneness and power are coherent—He creates, sustains, and governs without paradox. The Qur'an says, 'He arranges each matter; He details the signs' (Surah Ar-Ra'd, 13:2). His might is supreme, but it's not about defying logic—it's about perfecting it, making Tawhid the most reasonable understanding of God."
This argument is logically flawed: it's true that X can't be X as well as Y at the same time, in the same sense. But there is absolutely nothing wrong with X having all properties of Y, as well as all properties of Z, at the same time; X in this case is greater than either Y and Z, and encompasses both of them.
Consider saying: a father is distinct from a son. Therefore, a father can't be a father and a son at the same time. What? Clearly this is incorrect — it's perfectly possible for a father to be a son at the same time. That's because being a father or a son is a part of being a human being; similarly, being human is a part of being God.
We can therefore differentiate between an entity and a part, and recognize that there is a relationship between them: for example, a hand is an entity consisting of its own parts, i.e. 5 fingers, and it relationally belongs to a human person. In the same sense, a human person can relationally belong to a greater entity, i.e. God.
Thus, if we properly assign God's role to God, and a human's role to a human, there is no contradiction — only if we mix this up and assume that God's category is equivalent to that of a human do we get issues. But that requires a naive view of God, which would basically view him as a human with superpowers, rather than an entirely different category of being altogether.