It means that besides believing that Allah is God...

It means that besides believing that Allah is God, they also believed in the divinity of two other gods, and this is what is called ‘the Trinity’.”[^3] It has thus been written in “ Majma‘ al-Bayān ”, “Why does the Holy Qur’an state that Christians used to worship Jesus Christ ( ‘a ) and Mary ( ‘a ) despite the fact that some Christians never worshipped Mary?

There are two probable answers to this question: 1) that god in the above quoted verse does not denote literal meaning, but denotes honoring, because Christians respect Jesus Christ ( ‘a ) and his mother to the same extent that they respect Allah. It is for this reason that the Holy Qur’an has employed the word ‘ gods ’ [ ilāhayn ].

In reality, the above quoted verse does not mean that Christians considered these two as gods; 2) there were some Christians who used to worship Mary, as has been recounted by Shaykh Tūsī.”[^4] Shaykh Tūsī’s statement regarding the existence of a group of Christians who used to worship Mary has been recounted in “ Tafsīr al-Mīzān ”.

“ Tafsīr al-Mīzān ” has also quoted from “ Tafsīr al-Minār ” that the statue of Mary had been placed in all Christian churches, but Protestants abstained from worshipping Mary centuries after the advent of Islam. However, Catholics continued to worship Mary and used to take pride in doing so. Initially, both groups used to worship Mary, and placed her statue in their tabernacles and bowed down to it.

Third category: worshippers of the jinn “They make the jinn partners of Allah, though He has created them, and carve out sons and daughters for Him, without any knowledge. Immaculate is He and exalted above what they allege [concerning Him]!” [^5] [^1]: Sūrat al-Nisā’ 4:153. [^2]: Sūrat al-Mā’idah 5:116. [^3]: Tafsīr Al-Mīzān, vol. 6, p. 243. [^4]: Majma‘ al-Bayān, vol. 3, p. 268. [^5]: Sūrat al-An‘ām 6:100. Previous…