Can a Muslim Believe in the Divinity of Jesus (a.s.)?

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ

Someone asked, “If a Muslim came to believe in the divinity of Jesus (a.s.) even as he continued to believe all other tenets of Islam, what happens?  Is he thrown out of Islam?  Not acceptable as a Christian?  Accepted by one or both?  Does it depend on the community he is associated with?” 

That depends on the definition of divinity within Islamic theology.  For example, Shaykh Abu ‘Abdullah Muhammad ibn ‘Ali ibn ‘Arabi al-Hatimi (q.s.) wrote, in his Futuhat al-Makiyyah, that Islam’s contention with the Christians is not that they made Jesus (a.s.) God, but that they limited God to Jesus (a.s.). 

Within the concept of taswawwuf, spirituality, we understand the theological position that all Creation reflects every one of the Attributes of Allah (s.w.t.), but one, asw-Swamad, Eternality.  Only the nafs al-kamilah, the perfected soul, reflects it.  And that is why there are narrations that Yawm al-Qiyamah, the Day of Judgement, will not come as long as there is the thawaf, circumambulation of the Ka’bah; or that it will not come as long as there is the fast; or the swalah, ritual prayer.  Creation Exists because the nafs al-kamilah, is there, reflecting the Attribute of Swamad.  Once it has passed, the last of the true believers, there is no reason for the universe to exist, and the Day of Reckoning begins. 

Who are these perfected, these reflections of divinity, but the prophets and the saints?  In that sense, it is correct to state that, within our understanding of Islam, Jesus (a.s.) is divine, just as Muhammad (s.a.w.), and all the prophets and saints are divine.  An example of the divinity of the Prophet (s.a.w.), the effacement of his nafs, his self, is found in the Battle of Badr, when he threw sand, and it flew into the face of the Quraysh, blinding their charge, an example of mu’jizat, a prophetic miracle: 

سُوۡرَةُ الاٴنفَال

فَلَمۡ تَقۡتُلُوهُمۡ وَلَـٰكِنَّ ٱللَّهَ قَتَلَهُمۡ‌ۚ وَمَا رَمَيۡتَ إِذۡ رَمَيۡتَ وَلَـٰكِنَّ ٱللَّهَ رَمَىٰ‌ۚ وَلِيُبۡلِىَ ٱلۡمُؤۡمِنِينَ مِنۡهُ بَلَآءً حَسَنًا‌ۚ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ سَمِيعٌ عَلِيمٌ۬ (١٧) 

It is not you who slew them; it was Allah: when you threw (a handful of dust) it was not your act, but Allah’s: in order that He might Test the believers by a gracious trial from Himself: for Allah is He Who Hears and Knows (all things). (Surah al-Anfal:17) 

Yet, in all that, none of that divinity makes them, Jesus (a.s.) included, Divine in the sense that they are Allah (s.w.t.).  We do not confuse the light for the Lamp.