and the earth.”

He did, however, say, “before the world existed,” and he did not say that he had been eternally pre-existent alongside Allah without beginning, as the Christians claim when they maintain that he is one of God’s eternal attributes. Rather, he fixed a point in time by saying, “before the world existed.” It is unfitting to speak of the Lord of the Worlds in such terms—“He was before the world existed”—for exalted is He, eternal without beginning, and His existence has no starting point that could be tied to such a marker, especially if “the world” is taken to mean its being inhabited by Adam and his progeny. In that sense, “the world” may not even comprise the heavens and the earth; these might be reckoned as part of the Hereafter, and the spirits of the believers are in Paradise in the heavens. Thus “the world” is intended to mean earthly life, the present abode.

For this reason he said: “Yet he will not appear except in the days when his mother gives birth to him, just as other prophets appear only after their mothers have borne them.”

The mother, in fact, gave birth only to the nāsūt (human nature), whereas the lāhūt (divine nature), in their view, is begotten of Allah, the Eternal One without beginning. Should they assert that she bore the divine nature together with the human, this is patently false for many reasons.

If it is asked, “Why, then, was Jesus the Messiah, peace be upon him, singled out for mention?” it may be answered: just as Muhammad—Allah bless him and grant him peace—was singled out for mention; for the affair of the Messiah was more evident and more exalted than that of the prophets who preceded him after Moses. Likewise, the affair of Muhammad—Allah bless him and grant him peace—was more evident and greater than