the Father before all ages, Light from Light, true God from true God, of the very essence of His Father—begotten, not created, co-equal with the Father in essence. Thus you have declared that, alongside the Creator of the heavens and the earth, you also believe in a single, created lord, the only Son of God, who is—according to you—equal to the Father.

You went on to say: “He is true God from true God, of His Father’s essence.” This is an explicit confession of two gods, one issuing from the other: the knowledge of Allah that subsists in Him—or His speech, or His wisdom that inheres in Him—which you have called “son.” None of the messengers ever called any attribute of Allah a “son.” What you describe is not “true God from true God”; it is simply a divine attribute. An attribute is not a deity, just as His power, hearing, sight, and all His other attributes are not gods. The Deity is one, while His attributes are many. The divine being is an essence possessed of attributes, self-subsisting, whereas each attribute subsists in the One described.

Moreover, you have labeled the deity a “substance,” saying that it exists by itself, while an attribute is not a self-subsistent substance.

In this very creed you have made Allah both a begetter—the Father—and one begotten—the Son—and you have deemed the latter equal to the former in essence, although Allah has declared Himself exalted above these three categories.

You said: “Begotten, not created; co-equal with the Father in essence,” openly stating that he is equal to Him in essence. Yet what is equal is not the thing to which it is equal, and nothing can equal the Father in essence except another essence. Hence the Son must be a second essence, and the Holy Spirit a third, as will be shown. This is a forthright affirmation of three essences and three gods, while you still maintain: “We affirm only one essence and one God.” Such a statement combines two mutually contradictory claims.