the Lord—exalted is He—settled within the depths of the sacred valley, or within the blessed spot, or on the right-hand side; nor does it suggest that He united with any of those places, or that He and any one of them fused into a single essence or a single person. Some Christians say that the divinity and the humanity merged into one substance, while others contend that the two became one person. Yet no one has ever claimed that He permeated any of those locales the way water mixes with milk or fire enters iron, as some of them allege when they say, “The divinity indwelt the humanity.”
Likewise, even if it were supposed that certain individuals had voiced notions not borne out by the revealed scriptures and not grasped by sound reason, their words would carry no authority, for proof is valid only when founded on a reliable transmission from the prophets or on what reason decisively affirms.
Fifteenth Response:
The One who spoke to Moses and called out to him is God, Lord of the worlds, and His speaking to him from the tree is of the same order as His descent to the lowest heaven and His descent on the Day of Resurrection to judge His creation—a topic treated at length elsewhere. As for His indwelling in a human being or His union with one, that is impossible on numerous rational and textual grounds, and no prophet has ever reported such a thing. What the Christians say is sheer contradiction, for they allege that the Messiah—