the substance of His Father, your analogy would indeed be complete. Yet the reality is otherwise: it bears no resemblance to the case, no comparison can be drawn, and the argument you advance is devoid of merit.

He said:

We have also found you asserting that the Messiah descended from heaven and, by that descent, abolished death and sins. One’s amazement at such a claim is boundless—and even more astonishing is the person who accepts it without reflection, who does not deem it repugnant to ascribe to God, blessed and exalted, a religion built upon so impossible a proposition, one plainly contradicted by sound reason and direct observation, and then invites others to embrace it. Such a person would hardly hesitate to adopt—or to devise—something even more far-fetched and baseless. For if sin was truly annulled by his coming, then those who killed him are neither sinners nor blameworthy, for after his advent there would be neither sinner nor sin.

Likewise, those who slew his disciples and burned his books would incur no sin; and so, too, everyone among your community from that time until today who kills, steals, fornicates, commits sodomy, becomes drunk, lies, and perpetrates every major and minor prohibition would be free of guilt and blame.

Whoever denies this should refer to the hymn recited after every offering, namely: Ya Rabbana alladhi ghalaba bi-wajaʿihi al-mawt al-ṭāghī (O our Lord, who by His suffering overcame tyrannical death).