File:Christian-Trinity-vs-Quran.png

Summary
An image contrasting the traditional "mainstream" Christian doctrine of the Trinity with one common interpretation of how Muhammad presented the Trinity in the Qur'an, proposed for use in article Trinity in Qur'an (with relevant Arabic-language annotations of key terms).

On top is a bilingual English-Arabic version of the Shield of the Trinity diagram of traditional western Christian symbolism, used here to summarize the traditional orthodox Christian doctrine of the Trinity. Note that the accepted word used by Arabic-speaking Christians to refer to the Christian Trinity, thaluth الثالوث, does not appear in the Qur'an.

On the bottom is one common interpretation of the version of the Trinity which is condemned by Muhammad in the Qur'an, consisting of God ("Allah" in Arabic), Jesus, and Mary the mother of Jesus. This is based on an interpretation of the wording of Qur'an verses such as 5:73, 5:75, and 5:116 -- which uses phrases such as الله ثالث ثلاثة (Allah/God being "a third of three") and إلهين من دون الله (the worship of Jesus and his mother as "two gods beside (or in preference to) Allah/God"). From the point of view of historical Christianity, what is criticized by Muhammad seems to be more Collyridian than mainstream Christian; does not distinguish between the Trinity and a tritheism; and does not differentiate between God and God the Father.

Note that not all Muslims accept the interpretation that Muhammad thought that Mary was part of the Christian Trinity. Other Muslims believe that "Mariolatry" was more widespread than Christians would admit. Many Muslims would insist that there is no real difference between the Trinity and a tritheism, and some would point out that the early Church fathers didn't always differentiate between God and God the Father.

A separate but somewhat related issue is that the Qur'anic version of the name of Jesus (`Isa) is quite different from the original Hebrew/Aramaic version of the name (with the voiced pharyngeal `Ayin/`Ayn consonant at the beginning of the name in Arabic, while it is at the end of the name in the Hebrew and Aramaic languages). Some Christians find this alteration to be rather strange (since a much more accurate version of the name of Jesus in Arabic, Yasu`, seems to have existed during the time of Muhammed), and believe that it casts doubt on Muhammad's claimed knowledge of Jesus. Some Muslims claim that the form Isa may actually be more authentic.

For an Arabic-only version of the "Shield of the Trinity" diagram, see File:Turs-ul-Iman Shi'ar-uth-Thaluth.svg