And turning water into oil is an even more remarkable feat than turning it into wine, yet that did not make Elisha divine.

As for your claim that “the Messiah, peace be upon him, multiplied a small amount so that a great many people ate from only a few loaves,” the Book of Kings recounts that Elijah once lodged with a widowed woman during a famine that had spread among the people. The land had become barren, creatures were dying of hunger and wasting away, and everyone was in dire straits.

He asked the widow, “Do you have any food?” She answered, “By Allah, I have nothing but a single handful of flour in a small jar. I meant to bake it for my little child, and we have resigned ourselves to perishing because of this famine.”

He said to her, “Bring it and do not worry.” She brought it, and he invoked blessing upon it. Elijah then stayed with her for three years and six months, and she, her household, and her neighbors continued to eat from that same handful until Allah relieved the people.

Elijah therefore accomplished more in this regard than the Messiah: Elijah not only multiplied the small amount but sustained it, whereas the Messiah multiplied a small amount only once and for a single occasion. Yet Elijah was not deemed a god because of what he did.

He said: If you now say that these prophets themselves had no power over such acts, that the deed and the ability belong to Allah, exalted is He—He being the One who brought them about through their hands—then you have spoken the truth.

We likewise say to you: the Messiah had no independent power over the wonders that appeared through him; it was Allah who manifested them at his hands. So what difference remains between the Messiah and the other prophets, and what proof for divinity can be found in that?

He said: And if you argue that whenever the prophets wished Allah to show a sign through them, they humbled themselves before Him, supplicated Him, acknowledged His Lordship, and bore witness to their own servitude