are united in will, that is, the will of the one is precisely the will of the other. This is different from saying that his will merely accords with His will without being identical to it. For this reason the Most High has declared:

“They have certainly disbelieved who say, ‘Allah is the Messiah, son of Mary.’ But the Messiah said, ‘O Children of Israel, worship Allah, my Lord and your Lord. Whoever associates anything with Allah, Allah has forbidden him Paradise, and his abode is the Fire; the wrongdoers will have no helpers.’ They have certainly disbelieved who say, ‘Allah is the third of three,’ for there is no god except the One God. If they do not desist from what they say, a painful punishment will surely befall those of them who disbelieve. Will they not then repent to Allah and seek His forgiveness? Allah is All-Forgiving, Merciful. The Messiah, son of Mary, was only a messenger; messengers passed away before him. His mother was a woman of truth. They both used to eat food. Look how We make the signs clear to them, and look how they are deluded.” (Al-Māʾidah 5:72–75)

The Glorified and Exalted thus points out that both of them ate food, for this is among the clearest proofs that they are created, dependent beings, whereas the Creator is the One, the Ever-Self-Sufficient, who neither eats nor drinks. He mentioned Mary together with the Messiah because some Christians have taken her as another deity and worship her just as they worship the Messiah. As for those who do not go that far, many of them still ask of her everything that should only be sought