Does "As-Samad" Prove the Trinity? Zakaria Botros Refuted with Hebrew and Arabic
The Christian polemicist Zakaria Botros claimed in a televised episode that the Quranic word ==As-Samad== contains hidden proof of the Christian Trinity. His argument rests entirely on a linguistic claim about the word’s Hebrew origin. Both the Arabic dictionaries and the Hebrew Bible itself refute him completely.
Botros’ Claim
There are more than ten interpretations of the word “As-Samad” and the interpreters of the Quran did not agree on its meaning. This verse is evidence of the doctrine of the Trinity, because the actual meaning of “As-Samad” is “the one in the group.” The reason for the difference in interpretations is that the word is a foreign Hebrew word. Returning to the Hebrew dictionary, we find it as “Shamd,” meaning “one in the group.” The interpretation of the verses is therefore: “God is One, meaning one. God As-Samad means one in the group, and the group is three hypostases according to the Hebrew meaning.” In Greek, “Samd” also means “the one composed of the group.”
Refutation 1 — The Arabic Dictionary Contains No Such Meaning
The claim that “As-Samad” is a foreign word carrying the meaning “one in a group” is refuted by the most authoritative dictionary of the Arabic language. ==Lisan al-Arab lists every meaning of the root “Samad” — and not a single one means “one in three” or “one composed of a group.”==
The following is the complete entry:
Samada samda al-amr — he intended and resolved upon it.
Tasamdamda lahu — he intended him.
In the hadith of Mu’adh ibn al-Jamuh on killing Abu Jahl: “So samdatu samdahu until I was able to catch him by surprise” — meaning: I jumped on him, intended him, and waited for him to be unaware.
In the hadith of Ali: “So samda samdan until the pillar of truth is revealed to you.”
Al-bayt al-musammad — the house that is intended.
Tasamdamda rasuhu — he wrapped his head with a rag or garment, except for the turban.
Al-simad — the stopper of the bottle.
Samada al-amr ilayhi — he supported and entrusted the matter to him.
Samad (with fatha) — the obeyed master without whom no matter is decided; the one who is sought after in needs. As the poet said:
“May the mourner not announce the death of the two best of Banu Asad — Amr ibn Mas’ud, and the master Samad.”
As-Samad as an attribute of Allah — all matters are referred to Him and no one else decides them.
It was also said: He is the One who has no cavity — though this was noted as impermissible to attribute to God. Al-musammad is a dialect form of musmad — the one who has no cavity.
It was also said: As-Samad is the one who does not eat.
It was also said: As-Samad is the master to whom all leadership ends.
It was also said: As-Samad is the Master whose mastery has reached its ultimate end. Al-Azhari said: As for Allah the Most High, His mastery has no end because His mastery is unlimited.
It was also said: As-Samad is the Eternal One who remains after the annihilation of His creation.
It was also said: He to whom all matters are directed and no matter is decided without Him.
It was narrated on the authority of Umar that he said: “O people, beware of learning genealogies and attacking them, for by He in Whose hand is Muhammad’s soul, if I said: None will come out of this door except As-Samad, none would come out except a few of you.”
Abu Amr said: As-Samad is one of the men who neither thirsts nor hungers in war.
He said: As-Samad is the high mountain that goes into the sky like a column.
As-Samad is the lofty of everything.
As-Samad is the rough, elevated place on the ground that does not reach the level of a mountain. Its plural is Asmad and Simad.
Abu Khaira said: As-Samad and As-Samad are the hard, smooth, humble parts of a mountain in which trees grow.
Abu Amr said: As-Samad is the strong part of the earth.
A solid building — meaning elevated.
Al-Samdah and Al-Sumdah — a rock firmly fixed in the ground, level with it, sometimes rising slightly.
A she-camel that is Al-Sumdah — one that remains through cold and dry weather, always sending her messengers. Plural: masamid.
Across every meaning in Lisan al-Arab — from the obeyed master, to the lofty mountain, to the rock fixed in the earth — there is not a single instance of “one in a group,” “one composed of three,” or any meaning remotely related to a Trinity. Where did Botros find this? He has not told us, because there is nowhere to find it.
Refutation 2 — The Hebrew Word שׁמד Means Destruction, Not “One in a Group”
Botros claims the word derives from the Hebrew Shamd (שׁמד). This is a verifiable claim — and the Hebrew Bible verifies it against him.
Source: Strong’s Hebrew Bible Dictionary — http://www.htmlbible.com/sacrednamebiblecom/kjvstrongs/STRHEB80.htm#S8045
The conjugations of (שׁמד) in Hebrew:
| Hebrew Form | Transliteration | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| שׁמד | Shamad | Destruction / Annihilation |
| להשמיד | Lahishmid | To destroy |
| הושמד / להישמד | Hoshmad / Lahishmad | Was destroyed |
| להשתמד | Lahshtamd | Destroyed |
| לשמד | Lashmad | Forced to convert |
Not one conjugation carries the meaning “one in a group.”
The Word שׁמד in the Old Testament — Always Means Destruction
The Hebrew word Botros invokes appears throughout the Old Testament. In every occurrence, it means one thing:
Hebrew: lehshamed-no (לְהַשְׁמִידֵנוּ) — “to destroy us”
Hebrew: Hashemdam (הִשְׁמִידָם) — “they annihilated them”
Hebrew: hashmed (הַשְׁמֵד) — “destruction”
In every place this word appears in the Old Testament, it means destruction, annihilation, and obliteration. It never once means “one in a group,” “one of three,” or anything related to the concept of Trinity.
The Challenge Botros Cannot Answer
Second: If he cannot find it in Shamd, let him bring us any other Hebrew or Greek word meaning “one in three” — not just this word. He will find nothing.
Third: The Arabic language did not borrow this word from Hebrew. All tangible and intangible evidence points to Arabic as the original Semitic language from which Hebrew and Aramaic are derived as branches. The direction of borrowing, if any occurred, runs the other way.
Fourth: Even granting for argument’s sake that there is a Hebrew cognate — the meaning of Shamd (שׁמד) in Hebrew is destruction, not unity. Botros has not only fabricated the meaning; he has invented a meaning that is the direct opposite of the word’s actual and consistent usage throughout the Hebrew scriptures.
The word As-Samad is pure Arabic, with a rich and extensive semantic field documented exhaustively in Lisan al-Arab — covering meanings of lordship, ultimate authority, self-sufficiency, elevation, and solidity. None of these meanings contains even a trace of Trinitarian theology. The Hebrew cognate Botros invokes means destruction and is used that way dozens of times in the Old Testament. His entire argument is built on a word he invented, in a language he misrepresented, to prove a doctrine the Arabic dictionaries and the Hebrew Bible both refute.