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that God Himself is born, nor that any of His attributes is subject to birth—neither His knowledge, nor His life, nor anything else.
No prophet—not even the Messiah—ever proclaimed that God became united with any created being. Nothing of the sort appears in the Gospel or in any other scripture transmitted from the prophets. At most, those texts contain a few brief, ambiguous phrases, such as his statement,
“I and the Father are one,”
just as God said to Muhammad,
“Indeed, those who pledge allegiance to you are actually pledging allegiance to Allah” ⦗48:10⦘,
and His words,
“Whoever obeys the Messenger has certainly obeyed Allah” ⦗4:80⦘.
If, therefore, some of the Muslim freethinkers from among the Shiʿah or the Sufis were to say
نَبِيٌّ مِنَ الْأَنْبِيَاءِ بِأَنَّ اللَّهَ مَوْلُودٌ وَلَا شَيْءٌ مِنْ صِفَاتِهِ مَوْلُودٌ، لَا عِلْمُهُ وَلَا حَيَاتُهُ وَلَا غَيْرُ ذَلِكَ.
وَلَا نَطَقَ نَبِيٌّ مِنَ الْأَنْبِيَاءِ لَا الْمَسِيحُ وَلَا غَيْرُهُ بِأَنَّ اللَّهَ اتَّحَدَ بِشَيْءٍ مِنَ الْمَخْلُوقَاتِ.
وَلَيْسَ فِي الْإِنْجِيلِ وَغَيْرِهِ مِمَّا يُنْقَلُ عَنِ الْأَنْبِيَاءِ شَيْءٌ مِنْ ذَلِكَ، بَلْ غَايَةُ مَا فِيهَا كَلِمَاتٌ مُجْمَلَةٌ مُتَشَابِهَةٌ،
كَقَوْلِهِ:
(أَنَا وَأَبِي وَاحِدٌ)
كَمَا قَالَ اللَّهُ لِمُحَمَّدٍ:
{إِنَّ الَّذِينَ يُبَايِعُونَكَ إِنَّمَا يُبَايِعُونَ اللَّهَ}
[الفتح: ١٠]
وَقَوْلِهِ:
{مَنْ يُطِعِ الرَّسُولَ فَقَدْ أَطَاعَ اللَّهَ}
[النساء: ٨٠]
فَإِذَا قَالَ بَعْضُ مَلَاحِدَةِ الْمُسْلِمِينَ مِنَ الشِّيعَةِ أَوِ الْمُتَصَوِّفَةِ