Did Jesus Create? — A Quranic and Theological Refutation of the Christian Argument from Clay Bird Miracles
The miracle of Jesus creating a bird from clay is cited by some Christians as evidence for his divinity, yet the very verses they use as proof are in fact evidence against their claim. This is the verdict of the Sheikh of Islam Ibn Taymiyyah, whose response on this question constitutes one of the most thorough theological dissections of the Christian argument from Christological miracle texts. What follows is a full presentation of the Quranic evidence and the ten-point refutation.
The Quranic Verses at Issue
“And a messenger to the Children of Israel, saying: Indeed, I have come to you with a sign from your Lord in that I design for you from clay that which is like the figure of a bird, then I breathe into it and it becomes a bird by permission of Allah. And I heal the blind and the leper, and I bring the dead to life by permission of Allah. And I inform you of what you eat and what you store in your houses. Indeed in that is a sign for those who believe. And confirming what came before me of the Torah and that I may make lawful for you some of what was forbidden to you and I have come to you with a sign from your Lord, so fear Allah and obey me. Indeed, Allah is my Lord and your Lord, so worship Him. This is a straight path.” (Al Imran 3:49–51)
“Indeed, the example of Jesus before Allah is the example of Adam. He created him from dust and then said to him, Be, and it is. The truth is from your Lord, so do not be among the doubters.” (Al Imran 3:59–60)
“Is not He who created the heavens and the earth able to create the likes of them? Yes, and He is the Knowing Creator. His command is only when He intends a thing that He says to it, Be, and it is. So exalted is He in whose hand is the dominion of all things, and to Him you will be returned.” (Yasin 36:81–83)
The foundational point before the ten-part refutation is stated plainly: Christ is a creature and a born being, and the creature is not a creator and cannot create from nothing by himself. Even in the book that Christians sanctify, Christ never claimed that he is God the Creator or that he is the Creator of the heavens and the earth and whoever is in them. Rather, it was not mentioned that he created anything. The question must therefore be asked: is their book so lacking in proving their claim that Christ is God the Creator that they are forced to argue it from the Quran?
Ibn Taymiyyah’s Ten-Point Refutation
The Sheikh of Islam Ibn Taymiyyah responded to the Christian argument from these verses by stating: all of the verses that the Christians use as evidence — and others — are evidence against them, not for them. This is established across ten reasons.
The First Reason — No Absolute or General Creation Is Attributed to the Messiah
Allah did not mention about the Messiah an absolute creation, nor a general creation, as He mentioned about Himself, the Blessed and Most High, in many verses.
As for the Messiah, peace be upon him, Allah said about him: “And when you created from clay, as it were, the figure of a bird, by My permission.” And the Messiah said about himself: “I create for you from clay, as it were, the figure of a bird, then I breathe into it, and it becomes a bird by Allah’s permission.” He only mentioned the creation of a specific thing with Allah’s permission. How can this specific, permission-dependent act be taken as evidence that he is the Creator?
The Second Reason — Forming Clay Is Not a Divine Act
He created from clay in the form of a bird, and what is meant by that is forming it in the form of a bird. This creation is something that most people are capable of — one of them can form from clay the shape of a bird or other animals. ==The miracle lies in the soul being breathed into it and it becoming a bird by the permission of Allah the Almighty, not in the forming of clay itself, which is a common matter.^^
The Third Reason — The Permission Clause Negates Divinity
Allah informed that the Messiah only performed the shaping and the blowing by the permission of Allah the Almighty. The Messiah, peace be upon him, himself informed that he did it by the permission of Allah. Allah further informed that this is from the blessings He bestowed upon the Messiah, peace be upon him.
“He is only a servant upon whom We bestowed favor and made him an example for the Children of Israel.”
“O Jesus, son of Mary, remember My favor upon you and upon your mother when I supported you with the Holy Spirit so that you spoke to the people in the cradle and in maturity, and when I taught you the Book and wisdom and the Torah and the Gospel, and when you created from clay, as it were, the figure of a bird, by My permission, and you breathed into it and it became a bird by My permission, and you healed the blind and the leper by My permission, and when you brought forth the dead by My permission.” (Al-Ma’idah 5:110)
All of this is clear that he is not Allah, but rather he is a servant of Allah who did that by the permission of Allah, just as others were granted miraculous acts by Allah’s permission. The one who gives permission is not the one who is given permission, the teacher is not the one who is taught, and the one who is blessed along with his mother is not the one who bestowed the blessing.
The Fourth Reason — The Christian Interpretation Contradicts the Plain Quran
Some Christians said: he referred to the Creator as the Word of God united in humanity, and then said that “with the permission of God” means “with the permission of the word united in humanity.” This exposes their contradiction and their misuse of the Quran. Allah told in the Quran that Christ created from clay in the form of a bird by God’s permission, thereby distinguishing between Christ and God, and between God being the one who gave permission to Christ. These people claimed that what was meant by that was that the divinity united with the humanity of Christ is the Creator and the one who gives permission, thereby making the Creator the one who gives permission to himself. This is an interpretation of the Quran that directly contradicts the plain and clear Quran.
The Fifth Reason — A Divine Being Does Not Need to Give Himself Permission
If the divinity is the Creator, then it does not need to give permission to itself. They say He is one God and He is the Creator, so how does He need to give permission to Himself and bestow blessings upon Himself? This internal incoherence is not a peripheral problem — it collapses the entire Trinitarian reading of the verse.
The Sixth Reason — Speech as Divine Attribute Cannot Be a Creator Separate from God
The Creator is either the Self connected to speech, or speech which is an attribute of the Self. If it is speech, then speech is an attribute that does not exist as a Self in itself as a Creator, even if it is not united with humanity — and its union with humanity without the described Self is impossible even if union were possible in principle, so how is it possible in fact? And if the Creator is the Self described by speech, then that is God, the Creator of everything, the Lord of the worlds — and according to them He is the Father. But according to them Christ is not the Father, so he is not the Creator of everything. The Quran makes clear that it is God who gave permission to Christ to create from clay in the form of a bird, so it is clear that the one who created from clay is not God, nor is he one of His attributes. Christ is therefore not God, nor is he an ancient, eternal Son of God, but His servant who acted with His permission.
The Seventh Reason — David’s Words Refute the Christian Argument, Not Support It
The Christians say: David referred to the Creator as the Word of God, because David said: “By the Word of God the heavens and the earth were created.” The response is that this text from David is an argument against them, just as the Torah and the Quran and all that is proven from the prophets are arguments against them. David said “By the Word of God the heavens and the earth were created” — he did not say “The Word of God is the Creator,” as the Christians claim. The difference between the Creator of the heavens and the earth, and the Word by which the heavens and the earth were created, is a known and apparent matter — like the difference between the able and the power. The able is the creator, and He created things with His power, and the power is not the creator.
The Eighth Reason — David’s Statement Agrees with the Quran and Torah
The saying of David, peace be upon him — “By the word of God the heavens and the earth were created” — agrees with what came in the Quran and the Torah and other books of the prophets: that God says to a thing “Be,” and it is. This appears in the Quran in more than one place, and in the Torah God said “Let it be thus, let it be thus.” There is no warrant anywhere in this to conclude that the Word is a separate divine person who is the Creator.
The Ninth Reason — Word and Spirit Are Divine Attributes, Not Separate Persons
The Christians say: “Because there is no creator except God and His word and His spirit.” If they mean by His word His speech, and by His spirit His life, then these are among the attributes of God — like His knowledge and power. None of the prophets ever expressed the life of God as a separate Creator called “the spirit of God.” God’s words and His life are among His attributes, like His knowledge and power, and the Creator is God alone — His attributes are included under His name and do not need to be conjoined to His name with a conjunction indicating that God has a partner in His creation, for God has no partner. When the Most High said “Allah is the Creator of all things,” everything other than Him was included in His creations, and His attributes such as His knowledge, power, will, and speech were not included, because these are contained within the meaning of His name and are not things separate from Him. And if by “the word of His spirit” they mean the Messiah, or something united with the humanity of the Messiah, then the Messiah is created, as are all the messengers, and God alone is the Creator.
The Tenth Reason — David Could Not Have Meant Christ by “The Word of God”
It is not permissible for David, peace be upon him, to have meant the Messiah by “the word of God.” Christ is, for all people, a name for humanity — and for Christians it is a name for divinity and humanity when they were united. Union is an event in time, so before the union there was no humanity and no one called Christ. It is therefore known that David did not mean by “the word of God” the person of Christ. The Christians’ aim is to say that David meant the word in which — that is, in Mary — the divinity united with the body of Christ. But the one who was created by God’s permission is Christ, as the Quran stated:
“Indeed, Allah gives you good tidings of a word from Him, whose name will be the Messiah, Jesus, the son of Mary, distinguished in this world and the Hereafter and among those brought near to Allah.” (Al Imran 3:45)
So the word mentioned by David — that it is the one by which the heavens and the earth were created — is not the Christ who was created from clay in the form of a bird by God’s permission. Their argument that Christ, as the Word of God, was involved in the creation of things, and that this is proven by his creation of the clay bird with God’s permission, is a false argument. The word by which the heavens and the earth were created did not have humanity with it when those heavens and earth were created — this is agreed upon by all nations — and humanity must enter into Christ. It is therefore known that the word did not mean Christ. See: The Correct Answer (2/287–293).
The Two Types of Creation
A final clarification essential to understanding this entire discussion is the Islamic scholarly distinction between two types of creation.
Creation that belongs to God alone — making, estimating, and innovating without a prior example. Creation from nothing. This is the exclusive prerogative of Allah, the Creator of the clay itself which was the material of the bird.
Creation that is bounded, conditional, and performed by permission. As Moses created a snake from a stick, and Christ created a bird from clay — this creation is explicitly conditioned by God’s permission, as the Quran states: “And when you created from clay, as it were, the figure of a bird, by My permission.”
Jesus, peace be upon him, did not create the clay from which he formed the bird. He did not create the bird. His entire role was to breathe into the formed clay so that it became a bird by the permission of Allah the Almighty. The meaning of creation attributed to Jesus is estimation and depiction according to a prior example, while creation for God is making, estimation, and innovation without any prior example — creation from nothing. God is the Creator of the clay which is the very material of the bird. The role of Jesus was to form that clay into the shape of a bird, then blow into it — and it becomes a bird by the permission of Allah the Almighty. This means the entire matter is subject to the permission of God. With this, it becomes clear to every rational person that this was a miracle that God performed through the hands of Jesus, just as God performed miracles through the hands of Abraham, peace be upon him — in support of him and in confirmation of his prophethood, for he is the servant and messenger of God.
For this reason, when Allah praises Himself, He says:
“So blessed be Allah, the best of creators.”
The Christian argument that Jesus’s creation of a bird from clay establishes his divinity fails on every level. The Quran consistently and explicitly conditions every miraculous act attributed to Jesus — the bird, the healing, the raising of the dead — with the phrase “by the permission of Allah,” thereby distinguishing the servant from the Lord at every instance. Ibn Taymiyyah’s ten-point response demonstrates that the attribution of creation to Jesus in the Quran is restricted creation bounded by divine permission, not absolute creation, which belongs to Allah alone. David’s statement that the heavens and earth were created by the Word of God means that God created them through His command “Be” — it does not mean the Word is a separate Creator. God’s word and spirit are His attributes, not separate divine persons. The one who gives permission is not the one who is given permission. The one who is taught is not the teacher. The one who is blessed along with his mother is not the one who blessed him. By their own Trinitarian logic, the Father is the Creator — and Christ, they admit, is not the Father. The Quran therefore does not support the Christian claim; it refutes it.