the Jordan River without issuing any prayer or supplication. Yet we in fact find in the Gospel that he did beseech God and made requests that have already been mentioned.

In another passage of the Gospel he said:

“O my Father, I thank You for answering my prayer, and I know that You always hear me; but I ask You on account of this crowd, so that they may believe that it is You who have sent me.”

If you then say, “Forgiveness is from Allah, Mighty and Majestic, and the Messiah said to one of the Children of Israel, ‘Rise, I have forgiven you,’ while it is Allah alone who forgives sins,”

we reply: Allah said to Moses in the fifth book of the Torah, “Go forth, you and the people you brought out of Egypt; I shall appoint an angel to be with you who will forgive your sins.”

So if you claim that the Messiah is God because he forgave the sins of the paralytic, then that angel must likewise be God, for he forgives the sins of the Children of Israel—otherwise, what distinction can you draw?