Does Allah have a penis? Allah is capable of sexual reproduction!

Can Allah have a Wife And Son?

I always enjoy my weekly reading of the Quran and Bible. Today I was reading the Quran and talking with some Muslims and it just came to me after reading several passages of the Quran, that Allah must be capable of sexual reproduction.

Disclaimer

The following contents of this post were not originally intended to be offensive or rude, they arose out of my theological and deductive curiousity but now I have to admit sometimes you just ought to laugh at the beliefs people have in some cases, I mean they genuinely are funny. It seems some people don't like to have their own beliefs mocked and ridiculed while having no problem at all dishing it out, and therefore no one should throw stones while living in glass houses themselves!

Is it possible or impossible for Allah to have a Son?

Firstly, I'll quote the Qur'an which answers this question:

Say: "If (God) Most Gracious had a son, I would be the first to worship." 43:81

Notice: "If God had a son then X would happen" pressuposes God has the ability to have a Son but has so far chosen to refrain from this. To break this down: If A occurs then B results, cause and effect. In simple logic: If A then B. If John walked, then he moved his muscles. The structure of the sentence then pressuposes John can walk if he takes that action, just like Allah can have a son if he takes that action.

Mohammed is then commanded to admit that God can have a son if he wanted to, and if God had a divine Son, Mohammed himself admits he would worship that Son of God. This means it's possible for Allah to have a son, but Allah chooses not to have a son.

However if Allah can have a son, why doesn't Allah choose to have a Son? The Quran gives us the answer itself:

Wonderful Originator of the heavens and the earth! How could He have a son when He has no consort, and He (Himself) created everything, and He is the Knower of all things. 6:101

'And Exalted is the Majesty of our Lord: He has taken neither a wife nor a son. 72:3

In the past it was assumed this was a valid rhetorical question being made to the Christians. How can Jesus be the Son of God when God has no wife through which Jesus could be sexually reproduced as God's true biological Son? What this strong argument must mean is Jesus could not be the Son of God because he is not the offspring of God and his wife since God has no wife!

Muslims and Christians both thought about this and there was problems. The Quran in this verse assumes Son of God can only have one meaning, biological offspring of God.

Sam Shamoun says it best:

"To summarize, the reasoning of the Quran proceeds this way:

(1) If Allah has a son, then he must have (had sex with) a consort or wife.
(2) Allah does not have a consort (i.e. this is impossible for whatever reason).
(3) Therefore the claim that Allah has a son is refuted.

The structure is: (1) If A then B. (2) Not B. (3) Therefore, not A.

The structure of the argument is logically valid. If statements (1) and (2) were correct, then the conclusion (3) would follow. Although one could question statement (2) as well, the main problem is statement (1).

No reason is given why this statement is supposed to be true, but the argument is obviously based on analogy with human experience. The assumption is that it is not possible that a man can have a son without having sex with a woman. If there is a son, then there has to be a mother, and the man must have had sex with that mother."

If Allah was meant to be providing this as an argument to Christians he is making a false analogy from human experience and a strawman since Christians don't belive the only valid meaning of "Son" is offspring through sexual union, they never have and never will. So perhaps then, passages like this and other ones like it are being addressed to other groups of pagans or disbelievers?

Is it possible or impossible for God to have a Wife And Beget?

Since according to Muslims, the Quran cannot be seen as making a logical fallacy or an argument from false analogy and strawman, it may be best then to be suitable and apply these verses to altogether entirely different groups. For starters, why does the Quran even mention God does not possess a wife? When the Quran addresses a subject it frequently responds to groups of believers with specific theologies e.g. 5:43-48, 5:60-73, 9:30-31, therefore we should assume the Quranic author was addressing a specific group(s) who believed God had a wife and a son. It's possible the Quran was misrepresenting the beliefs of these groups and perhaps "wife" and "son" has some other meaning to them, but we will take the Quran at it's word in this case, since it's probable pagans had these kinds of beliefs.

Furthermore this is confirmed by Muslim Apologist Ibn Anwar who cites several authorities:

"Jesus often becomes the focus of attention when discussing the verse in question even though he is not specifically the subject under discussion in the verse itself! Thus Dr. Louay Fatoohi states that “Interestingly, none of the verses (6.101, 72.3, 37.152, 112.3) that deny that God had a consort or begot offspring occurs in the context of talking about Jesus’ sonship of God.” [2] 

Mawlana Abdul Majid Daryabadi in his commentary writes regarding the verse:

“This refutes the polytheism of several peoples like the Hindus, the Babylonians, and the Egyptians, which maintained that each god had a female companion or consort. Indian polytheism wentstill further. ‘Even God’, according to the Upanishads, ‘had a desire for progeny and wanted a wife unto Himself for propagation.’ (Indra, Status of Women in Ancient India, pp. 129-133). See P. V, n. 513.” [3] (source)

Therefore since we know Allah may not be addressing Jews and Christians but rather Pagans, we can now evaluate the text further. The Quran then shows us how Allah is deficient in the sense of having a Son. It explains the true reason why Allah chooses not to have a son is because Allah has no consort or wife, he is lacking a necessary component of the process to produce a Son. Therefore if Allah wanted a Son, he requires a consort in order to have a Son! But why would that be? Isn't that highly suspicious for a God and Creator to need a Wife to have a Son? That seems like an awfully powerless deity.

For most of us humans this is very rational thinking: "Hey wait a minute, I'm not married, I don't have a partner, I can't have children!", therefore because we are humans and have genitals we can assume the real reason we dont yet have children is because of having no consort.

However if we didn't have any genitals or sexual organs or were reproductively deficient or more specifically we were asexual like God, we wouldn't say:

"I cant have a son because I have no consort"

Rather as a human you would say:

"I can't have a son because I am unable to court and reproduce since I have a reproduction deficiency (or I'm asexual, I cannot beget! if you're God)".

Better yet if we weren't capable of having a partner or having a consort due to a reproductive deficiency, you wouldn't be answering the question with an assumptive desire of having a Son: "I can't have a son because I don't have a wife" assumes the person desires to have a Son or is giving a proper qualification or explanation as to why it cannot have children, when supposedly it is unable to take an action that contradicts it's own nature so it needs no explanation to begin with! That's like asking "How can he (a person) jump off the cliff when he has no parachute?" But imagine if humans were incapable of jumping and incapable of having parachutes, then the question would be meaningless. Hence if Allah really is incapable of having a Son or having a Wife ontologically speaking, this response "How can Allah have a Son when he has no consort" would be meaningless. It would simply be "Allah cant have a Son or a Wife because Allah is absolute, sovereign and independent and those entity contradict those attributes".

And if there was no desire to have a son and you are asexual combined with an ontological impossiblity you would rather just be clear and say:

"By my very own anatomy it is impossible for me to have a Son, my nature prohibits me from having a Son! I literally can't have Son since I am asexual, I have no sex organs" 

And if you were God of the universe: "I cannot beget, I am asexual by nature"

Therefore God can always appeal to his own asexual nature, as a non-sexual being and point out he has no sexual anatomy like humans and he certainly has no gender like humans. But it is the utterly confusing sense in which God answers this question in the Quran that causes utter chaos and confusion:

 "He begets not, nor was He begotten" 112:3

 "God has begotten children"? but they are liars!" 37:152

If Allah would have simply said: "He cannot beget nor is it possible he was begotten", but all the Quran confirms is that Allah chooses to beget not. So Allah wasn't begotten nor does he beget, does that mean he cannot beget? I don't know whether he can be begotten, but he can most certainly beget as:

1. If Allah wanted a Son, then he would have to beget through his consort or wife as that is the only way to have a valid Son. (6:101;33:4-5)
2. Allah could have a Son if he wanted (43:81)
3. Therefore Allah could beget through his consort or wife

So even though the verse says "Allah begets not" it's quite apparent that Allah is passively not begetting even though he is fully capable of producing children.

Note in order for Allah to claim he can beget a Son if he wanted to, he would have to beget a Son while still remaining the Sole and Supreme God of the universe, otherwise Allah would cease being Allah. In fact if the author of the Quran were a little more thoughtful hey may have argued: Allah could not possibly have a Son based on the grounds that if Allah had a Son, then several of Allah's prime attributes might cease to exist like uniqueness and soleness therefore resulting in Allah no longer being Allah. Therefore in order for Allah to have a Son there would be no Allah, making it impossible for Allah to have a Son!

What do you know? I just created a better argument than the Quran!

However the fact that the author never makes this objection implies the author knew that Allah could have a Son (if he wanted) while still remaining to be fully God unique, supreme and divine. It is therefore apparent, the Quran never argues that God doesn't have a Son because he can't or it's impossible or because it would mean God ceases to be unique or stripped of his divine attributes, rather it argues God cannot have a Son because God simply made a choice to want to be the Sole Supreme Agent and receive all the glory and worship for himself.

Does God have sexual organs aka a penis and is God really a male?

If Allah is able to have a son himself (43:81), but has no wife to produce a son(6:101), this means if Allah had a wife together they would be capable of begetting a son. It is sexual union that results in a Son, but since Allah can have a son but has no wife, this must mean Allah is capable of sexual reproduction but has no vessel to engage in such an act, in other words Allah has the sexual hardware and equipment to produce a son if only he had a wife! To put it simply Allah must have a penis, unlike ours, a divine penis!

The Quran assumes Allah can only have a son in the sense that he would have to have a wife in order to have a son! The author of the Quran thought the only way to concieve and have a child was through the animalistic act of physical intercourse known as begetting. So while the Quran denies Allah having taken a wife, it does however confirm Allah can only have a Son through a wife which means God has only a single way to produce a Son, the act of begetting. It may not be idenitical to human begetting, but rather a divine begetting with a wife.

But this is obviously fallacious logic, as the classical God of monotheism could have a Son in more than one sense especially since God is not human like us. In fact the only sense in which God couldn't literally have a Son in, is the sense in which the Quran affirms and advocates! (the only way Allah could have a Son is by having intercourse with a wife!) Thus this is the only sense in which it is impossible for God to have sex and have a Son since God in his divine essence cannot procreate or reproduce in the sense humans do since he has no tangible qualities like a penis or reproductive organs, nor does he have testes, sperm etc. God cannot have a penis as he is invisible, immaterial, formless, spaceless, timeless etc

Furthremore to say you lack something or anything in order to have a Son means you are imperfect or incomplete, quite simply: dependent on something else. Therefore Allah is imperfect and incomplete since he needs another entity in order to have a Son. Once again it's either God cannot have a wife, or God has taken not a wife.

Going back to the verses:

How could He have a son when He has no consort, and He (Himself) created everything, and He is the Knower of all things 6:101

Say: "If (God) Most Gracious had a son, I would be the first to worship." 43:81

Notice the first verse assumes God must have a consort to have a son, meaning God nessacerily relies on something else to have a Son. While in verse 43:81 : "If Most Gracious had a son" pressuposes God already has the complete power to have a Son whenever he wills to. Hence in one verse of the Quran, Allah can have a son but needs something outside of himself to complete this task, while in another verse Allah is fully capable of using his own divine power to produce a Son from his own might without a wife!

In addition notice 6:101 answers itself: How can Allah have a son without a consort? AND HE CREATED EVERYTHING AND KNOWS EVERYTHING. If Allah knows everything then, he knows how to have a Son without a WIFE! Further more if he created everything it's clear he can create a wife (and knows how to) at any time. The question is: If Allah sexually enters his consort in order to beget a Son, (since that is ontologically possible for him to do if he willed so) does that mean he is entering his own creation? Allah may not be incarnating like Jesus, but he is inserting himself into the creation and leaving his essence (sperm or whatever) in order to have a Son, unless someone argues for an eternal wife of Allah like the Mother of the Book!

It's possible for a Muslim to interject here and point out, well can't Allah have a son without a wife? Well maybe if he was actually all knowing. But even in the Quran the answer is yes and no. According to 6:101 Allah requires a wife to have a son as the contrary is impossible, while according to 39:4 Allah could just choose a being among his creation as his own Son.

Had Allah wished to take to Himself a son, He could have chosen whom He pleased out of those whom He doth create: but Glory be to Him! (He is above such things.)
He is Allah, the One, the Irresistible. 39:4 (Yusuf Ali)

Hence Allah refutes himself in his own Quran! How can Allah have a son without a wife? THOUGH ADOPTION, by choosing a being out of that which he created! In fact this is the very sense Christians are referred to as adopted children of God which the Quran denies (5:18)

It is impossible for God to take a Wife since the verses you quoted prove he cannot take a wife.

I don't agree with Sam Shamoun's argument here in his article he appeals to these verses to show it is impossible for Allah to acquire a consort. And he probably makes the best argument for the opposition, so I'll point out why his reasoning is unconvincing:

"Although it is formulated as a rhetorical question in S. 6:101, the implied answer is clear: There is no way that Allah (or anyone) could have a son without a consort. These two passages actually reject two ideas as impossibilities. First, it is impossible that Allah could have a son without a consort. Second, it is impossible for Allah to have a consort. No reason is given for the first "impossibility"; it is treated as self-evident truth, based on the general experience that it is impossible for a man or male animal to have a son without having a sexual relationship with a female. The second is rejected because it would be a contradiction to the exalted majesty and greatness of Allah to ascribe to him a consort. In the Quran, Allah’s greatness seems to depend at least in part on his aloneness."

Note with 6:101 however: "How could He have a son when He has no consort" is different to "How could He have a Son when he cannot have a consort!" All this verse affirms is that Allah has no current consort and hasn't acquired one, not that he is absent the ability to attain one. Notice the version I provide is more effective and conclusive against the pagans as opposed to the softer version of the Quran. The next passage 72:3: "The truth is that - exalted be the Majesty of our Lord - He has taken unto Himself neither wife nor son " we are certainly given a reason why Allah refuses to take a wife or a son, but not told Allah cannot do such acts.

Indeed the statement "He has not taken" implies that he could have taken if he willed to, since Allah could easily have said: "He cannot take unto himself neither wife nor son" meaning it was impossible for Allah, what a powerful argument that would have been! Further, Shamoun has an excellent article where he points out Allah really can do all things, he has no limitations at all.

That's all for now, watch out for part 2 in the future.