Is Unitarianism considered Idolatry?

Question

Unitarians are Christians who reject the concept of the trinity and the divinity of Jesus. Would Unitarianism still be considered shirk according to Islam?

Answer 1

God has mentioned in quran that all the prophets came with the same message i.e. There is only one God. After that people differed because of none other jealously. God also mentions that Trinity is shirk.

For what I have been able to understand from the link you provided, it seems like Unitarianism is more closer to the original message. i.e. One God

For a brief description of shirk:

1. Saying someone is from God or God is from someone
2. Saying there is someone in partnership with Him in creation and control.

Answer 2

Unitarianism is a fairly high-level and abstract classification of diverse ideas that all renounce the classical doctrine of Trinity, among other things. As one might expect, under the Unitarian umbrella there is a spectrum of diverse ideas. The renunciation of Trinity has not been uniform, of the same nature and degree across different groups - all referred to as Unitarian.

The Unitarian Arians, for example - viewed from an Islamic angle - maintain only subtle variation on the concept of Trinity. In particular, the controversy revolved around whether Logos (Word, Kalima) was created or not. They still believed in Jesus as Son the "only-begotten God." From Muslim perspective, the Trinity still holds. However, it would be unjust at this point to not mention that emanationist theory, the underlying metaphysical framework of the doctrine of Trinity, has its own following in Islam. The mystic elements in both major factions of Islam draw heavily from the neo-platonic metaphysics, shared also by Christianity.

At the other end of the spectrum were, the now almost extinct (as far as I know), Judeo-Christian Ebionites. The difference between Ebionite and Islamic Christology is well explained by the Christian emperor al-Najāshī

"By God, Jesus is not more than what you have described him."

It is easy to deconstruct that Najashi must have been an Ebionite, because like Muslims, Ebionites believe:

1. Jesus Christ (pbuh) was a Prophet with human-only nature
2. Virgin birth of Jesus (some ebionites differed on that)
3. Validity of both Old and New Testament (Torah-observance)
4. Rejection of original sin.

In fact, possibly the only disagreement might be on the issue of Christ's (pbuh) resurrection, but that - according to Islam - is natural.

And for their saying: verily We have slain the Messiah 'Isa son of Maryam, an apostle of Allah, whereas they slew him not, nor they crucified him but it was made dubious unto them. And verily those who differ therein are in doubt thereof, they have no knowledge thereof; they but follow an opinion; and surely they slew him not. [4:157]

Some of the most revered Christians Al-Najashi and Warqa-ibn-Nawfil (the uncle of Muhammad's (pbuh) first wife) were Ebionite christians.

Answer 3

As far as I know, the Unitarians although do consider Jesus (peace be upon him) is not divine, but yet worship him, ask for his help other than God, or besides God.

Worship: the feeling or expression of reverence and adoration for a deity (Oxford Dictionary).

Or have they taken other than Allah as intercessors? Say, "Even though they do not possess [power over] anything, nor do they reason?" Say, "To Allah belongs [the right to allow] intercession entirely. To Him belongs the dominion of the heavens and the earth. Then to Him you will be returned." (Qur'an 39:43)

Their actions implicitly mean to imply the notion of worshiping besides the creator.

So, it is SHIRK (ascribing partners to the creator).

Support:

Can we “worship” Jesus Christ? The man says 'yes' in the video in that article.

Answer 4

As far as they DO NOT accept Islam as the only true religion from God, and accept Allah as only God and prophet Muhammad as his Last prophet, they are out of bounds of islam.

Quran (3:85) And whoever desires other than Islam as religion - never will it be accepted from him, and he, in the Hereafter, will be among the losers.

And Allah knows the best

Answer 5

The link you provided of WikiPedia had this sentence in its third line:

Unitarians maintain that Jesus is in some sense the "son" of God, but not the one God.

All other discussions end up here. In Islam we believe that God neither has any father nor has a son, that is in Surah Ikhlas!

Lam yalid, wa lam yulad.

Now, whether they believe that God is in three form (Trinity) or they believe God is one. Until they believe that Jesus is Son of God, they're onto the wrong path. Anyone who denys what Allah is saying, is commiting a Shirk since he is not obeying or is not believing that Allah is true!