Muslim and Christian theology does not always sit side by side so comfortably, however. Christian authors often allege that the Qur'an misunderstands the Trinity: Christians do not worship three gods as Muslims claim, they argue, but one God made up of three co-equal parts. Meanwhile the Muslim counters that this argument is itself based on a misunderstanding of Islam's teaching on the unity of God. Islam teaches that the only thing that is worthy of worship is the Creator and Sustainer of all things. Anything that is worshipped beside God is described as "a god". It does not make any difference whether it is an idol, a tree, a river or a person; if an individual takes it as an object of worship, it is then for that person a god. The Christian retort, of course, is that Jesus is God. They recognise that God is One and that to worship other than God is unacceptable: "You shall have no other gods before Me". This, the Christian argues, is what the Muslim fails to understand; Jesus is not a separate god, but God Himself.

Yet this remains a misunderstanding of the Islamic perspective. There are three world religions that acknowledge the life of Jesus: Christianity, Judaism and Islam. While Judaism implicitly denies that he was the Messiah, Muslims acknowledge Jesus as a Messenger of God, believe in his miracles and consider his mother the best woman of all creation. Islam does emphasise, however, that Jesus is not God, insisting instead that he was a Prophet sent to the House of Israel. Thus it does not make any difference if a person brings philosophical arguments to say that he was God; the Qur'an's position stays the same. In teaching that Jesus is other than God, the fact that Christians worship him means that he is a god worshipped along side the Creator. Let us suppose that the Leader of the Opposition, despairing at the Party's election prospects, suddenly started claiming that he is God. Naturally we would all agree that he is not and so even if he told us that he was one in essence with God, we still would not accept it. The mere presence of an argument does not prove anything.

Still, theologians will no doubt continue to argue this point for years to come, for in the case of both traditions it is the crux of faith. The belief in the Trinity as expressed in the Nicene Creed was not arrived at overnight, but came about after a great deal of debate and disagreement. Everyone has heard of Arius who believed that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit were entirely different, sharing neither nature nor essence, but the proponents of different viewpoints still numbered in the hundreds. Having gone to such lengths to establish what constitutes orthodoxy in the Christian tradition, a meeting of minds between Christian and Muslim obviously remains unlikely. Even so, both traditions agree that our Lord is forgiving and merciful.