and everything else to which they appeal—the Christians cite it from the words of the prophets as proof of his divinity—but phrases of that sort are likewise found with respect to people other than the Messiah. Therefore, to single the Messiah out as divine to the exclusion of all others is baseless. Such phrases include the title “the Son” or “the Messiah,” the Holy Spirit’s indwelling in him, calling him “God,” or statements about the Lord’s appearing to him, indwelling in him, or residing in him or in his place.

These expressions and the like occur, in their own scriptures, for others besides the Messiah, yet those individuals were never regarded as gods on that account.

Nevertheless, those who maintain the doctrines of indwelling and union for all prophets and righteous people may try to use these words as evidence. That doctrine, however, is false by the unanimous agreement of Muslims, Jews, and Christians; it is false in and of itself, both rationally and textually. True, some sects among the irreligious and the innovators who affiliate themselves with Muslims, Jews, or Christians do hold this view, but they have confused what settles in the hearts of those who truly know Him—people of faith, knowledge, His light, His guidance, and the spirit from Him—and what is expressed by al-mathal al-aʿlā (the loftiest analogy) and by the conceptual exemplar.

They imagine that this is the very essence of the Lord, like someone who thinks that the spoken word itself is identical to the meaning in the heart, or that the written line is identical to the spoken word; or like one who fancies that the being of the beloved has entered the being of the lover and united with him, or that the very object of knowledge has entered and united with the being of the knower—despite the certain knowledge that the beloved who is known remains separate from the lover’s person, in both soul and body, and that none of these has actually lodged within the lover himself.

Allah, exalted be He, has said: