Jehovah's Witnesses

Stated fairly, the agreement is real and substantial:

Witnesses teach that Jesus (peace be upon him) existed before his human life as the archangel Michael, "the Word" of John 1:1, and the first of God's creations, through whom God made all other things. Their case cites Colossians 1:15 ("the firstborn of all creation"), Revelation 3:14 ("the Beginning of God's creation") and 1 Thessalonians 4:16, where the Lord descends "with the voice of the archangel".

Examination: no verse says Jesus is Michael; the identification is an inference. Mainstream Christian and Jewish interpreters read Michael as a separate angel. The Quran also distinguishes angels from messengers, and calls Jesus a word from God and a created human being like Adam (Quran 3:59), not an angel.

Witnesses pray to Jehovah in the name of Jesus, citing John 14:6, and their New World Translation renders Hebrews 1:6 so that angels "do obeisance" to the Son. They describe this as honor, not the worship due to God; their older literature varied on whether Jesus may be worshipped.

Examination: Islam holds that no created being, angel or prophet, is a mediator in prayer; one calls on God directly (Quran 2:186). The Quran also states that the Messiah would never disdain to be a servant of God (Quran 4:172).

Witnesses teach that Jesus died on an upright stake (Greek stauros) and that the cross is a pagan symbol not to be used in worship. Most historians hold that Roman crucifixion often used a crossbeam; the exact shape in Jesus' case is not recorded and is disputed. The Quran's position differs from both: "they did not kill him, nor did they crucify him; but [another] was made to resemble him to them" (Quran 4:157).

Witnesses teach that only 144,000 anointed Christians go to heaven to rule with Christ, while the "great crowd" of other believers will live forever on a restored earth. Only those who profess to be anointed take the bread and wine at their annual Memorial. Examination: the same verse says the 144,000 are drawn from the tribes of Israel; Witnesses read the number literally but the tribes symbolically, which other interpreters dispute. The Quran sets no fixed number on those admitted to Paradise.

Witnesses are taught to welcome doctrinal changes as "new light" or "new understanding", based on their reading of Proverbs 4:18 ("the path of the righteous is like the dawning light"): understanding of scripture advances progressively over time. Their literature also says that it was their own understanding, not God's word, that failed.

Deuteronomy 18:22 gives a test: if a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord and the thing does not happen, the Lord has not spoken it. Witnesses reply that their dates were interpretations, not prophecy. The Quran's measure is similar: God's word does not change (Quran 10:64, Quran 6:115), and the knowledge of the Hour is with God alone (Quran 31:34), which also agrees with Jesus (peace be upon him)' words in Mark 13:32.

The New World Translation (New Testament 1950) renders John 1:1: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was a god."

In Greek the second theos (God) has no article, while the first, "with God", does. Witnesses argue that the anarthrous noun is qualitative or indefinite. Some scholars who are not Witnesses have judged parts of the translation favorably; Bruce Metzger wrote in 1964 that "frequently an intelligent use of a critical information is apparent".

Most Greek scholars reject "a god". F. F. Bruce said the rendering reflects Witness interpretation; William Barclay called it "grammatically impossible"; Bruce Metzger criticized it in 1953. The translators' names were not published; Jason BeDuhn noted in Truth in Translation (2003) that this is also true of the NASB. The rendering is disputed. From the Islamic view, both translations face difficulty: "a god" beside God introduces a second, lesser divine being, which the Quran equally rejects (Quran 112:1 to 4).

Witnesses are directed by a Governing Body in Warwick, New York. Since their annual meeting of 6 October 2012, explained in The Watchtower of 15 July 2013 ("Who Really Is the Faithful and Discreet Slave?"), they teach that the Governing Body itself is "the faithful and discreet slave" of Matthew 24:45, appointed by Christ in 1919 to give spiritual food to his followers. Members are expected to follow its direction, and those who openly dissent may be disfellowshipped.

In the parable, the faithful servant is one of several servants (Matthew 24:45 to 51), and nothing in it names a body, a year or a city. The identification was itself changed in 2012, which shows it is interpretation. The Quran's warning in 9:31 about taking scholars as lords applies here as well as to the papacy.