Section: Refuting Their Analogy of the Divine Attributes to the Sun’s Rays

As for their claim, “Each attribute is distinct from the other,” if what they mean by that is that the Lord’s attributes, exalted is He, can be separate from Him and exist apart from His Essence—and that, in fact, is the substance of their doctrine—then while they say this, they also maintain that those very attributes remain attached to Him. Thus they have brought together two mutually exclusive propositions. Their comparison with the sun’s rays is therefore invalid; it is an argument against them, not in their favor.

The ray that is present in the air, on the earth, in the mountains, the trees, and the walls is not the ray that inheres in the body of the sun itself, and the ray that inheres in the sun’s body is not the one that inheres in the air and the earth.

Should they reply, “Rather, the knowledge that abides with Him overflows from Him into the hearts of the prophets as various kinds of knowledge, just as a ray overflows from the sun,” we answer: the Messiah is not singled out by this; it is something he shares with the rest of the prophets. In this there is no ḥulūl (indwelling) of the Lord’s Essence or of any attribute that subsists in Him within any of His creatures, nor does a servant, by virtue of the knowledge and faith that dwell in him, become a deity worthy of worship.