“Those who say, ‘Allah is the third of three,’ have certainly disbelieved” (5:73).

He said: The Christians maintain that Allah is the Messiah together with His mother; hence His statement, “Did you say to the people, ‘Take me and my mother as two gods apart from Allah’?” (5:116).

A third—and even stranger—interpretation has been transmitted from Abū Sakḥr concerning the words, “Those who say, ‘Allah is the third of three,’ have certainly disbelieved” (5:73). He claimed that it refers to the Jews’ assertion, “Ezra is the son of Allah,” and the Christians’ assertion, “The Messiah is the son of Allah,” thereby making Allah the third of three. This explanation is weak.

Saʿīd ibn al-Baṭrīq relates in his chronicle of the Christians that among them is a faction known as