I once heard the Trinity explained as the flame of a candle-there is a blue color at the wick, red around that and yellow around that. The idea of Namaste really, as far as I understand it, explains the reality that each of us carries a bit of the Divine spark within.

Thank you for posting this – true dialogue and respect between faiths is what, I believe, truly mirrors the love of God.

Yes, you are correct — there is no Christian trinity in Islam. I didn’t say that. And to make sure I didn’t, I revised the part where it might have looked like I did. I do believe that God is one God, begets not, nor was he begotten. My point was not to say that Islam has many Gods or is Trinitarian (because there is only one God in Islam). My point was to take the oneness of God I felt in Islam and compare it with the oneness of God I felt in Christianity. It is difficult for Christians and Muslims alike to dialogue about these points — shirk, the nature of Jesus, trinity, etc. — and there is a lot of Islamophobia in those discussions on behalf of Christians. I come from a position of not really understanding the trinity myself and not believing that Jesus is divine. I was (hopefully) trying to explain that when I accept the trinity as mystery, and Jesus’ divinity as not him being GOD but more like fana — like the great saints and prophets, something we can all aspire to, it reminds me of the basmalla. It doesn’t mean they’re the same. To me, it’s a way to understand the trinity using what I am learning from Islam to help me. It still opens up a can of worms. But it seems like the opening to a dialogue.

But as Mahmoud Ayoub said with respect to the trinity and Christian-Muslim relations:
[The suras against shirk in the Quran are] not directed against Christianity, but against Christians who may mistakenly think of God as three independent dieties. The Qur’an does not offer theological arguments against the trinity, but counters anthropomorphism with absolute divine transcendence. Nor would Christian theologians, then or now, have disagreed with this Qur’anic assertion. Christians clearly do not believe the Trinity to be three Gods. (except, Thr edit — Mormons, maybe?). The appreciation of this point requires much patience, sensitivity, and openness on the part of Christians who would explain the Trinity as a mystery of faith, and of Muslims who would try and appreciate it as an expression of God’s infinite compassion (rahmah) and not a divine exercise in obscurest mathematics.

I welcome all feedback and comments. Thanks for opening up a dialogue.