The reply may be presented from several angles.

First: We say that what they have described—claiming that Allah’s creative Word took on the body of a created human being and that the two were born together, the Word alongside the human nature, an event they express with the phrase “the union of the divinity and the humanity”—is, by the clear verdict of reason, impossible. And whatever sound reason definitively judges impossible cannot be something a messenger is permitted to report, for the messengers only convey matters whose impossibility is not established by reason. As for anything plainly impossible to the intellect, the messengers are far above attributing it to God.

Second: The divine scriptures state explicitly that the Messiah is a servant of Allah and not the Creator of the universe, while the Christians assert that he is both a perfect God and a perfect man.

Third: we shall discuss in detail the very points they have raised.

As for the first line of argument, it unfolds in several aspects.

One: It may be said that the being united with the Messiah must be either the Essence that possesses the attribute of Speech, or the Speech (Word) alone. If you wish, you may put it thus: the entity united with him is either the Word together with the Essence, or the Word apart from the Essence. If the union were between the Word plus the Essence and the Messiah, then the Messiah would himself be the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit—in other words, the three hypostases would all be the Messiah. This is rejected by the consensus of the Christians, all other religious communities, and the divine books, and it is plainly impossible by sheer reason, as we shall make clear, God willing.

But if what is united with him is only the Word, then the Word is an attribute, and an attribute does not subsist