of Allah— is to force upon the word a meaning for which it has never been employed, neither in the discourse of any prophet nor in the language of any prophet. The same applies to interpreting “the Holy Spirit” as “the life of Allah.” Hence, the sense that the Christians ascribe to the plain words of the Messiah is an explanation unsupported by the Messiah’s own language and customary usage, and equally unsupported by the language of the other prophets and of the nations. What is actually established in his tongue and in the speech of all the prophets is the interpretation we have set forth; indeed, it is the very reading adopted by the leading scholars among the Christians themselves.

As for the misguided Christians who distort the meanings of the Books of Allah, exalted is He, they have construed the passage in a manner that contradicts its obvious sense—an interpretation that both reason and revelation reject.

This discussion is completed by a sixth point:

When the Christians read in their scriptures that the Messiah—peace be upon him—is called a “son,” and that other prophets are likewise called “sons,” as in the divine address to Jacob, “You are My first-born son,” and when the disciples are also described as “sons,” they claimed that the Messiah is God’s son by nature, whereas others are His sons by adoption. Thus they made the word “son” a homonym with two distinct meanings and then posited for Allah a “nature,” on the basis of which they deemed the Messiah His son. This, in turn, bolsters the opinion of those among them who understand the phrase to mean that he is literally God’s son in the ordinary, created sense, and that Mary is the wife of Allah.

In the same way, they treated the Holy Spirit as a homonym shared between the life of Allah and the Holy Spirit that descends upon prophets and the righteous—yet it is well known that such homonymy is