nor from His creative Spirit’; and your statement,

‘Then the creative Word descended’;

and your statement,

‘So the creative Word concealed itself within a created human being—one it had fashioned for itself by the Father’s good pleasure and the Spirit’s assistance.’

This entails that the Word is a creator, that the Spirit is a creator, and that it created by the good pleasure of the Father, the Creator, and by the aid of the creative Spirit; moreover, this creator descended, whereas the Father did not descend.

If, then, the Creator is one who possesses attributes, there can be only a single Creator here.

Second point:

Your statement, ‘He sent forth His creative Word, by which everything came into being,’ while the scriptures clearly affirm that God creates things by His speech, saying to them, ‘Be!’ and they are—as found in the Quran, the Torah, and other revelations.

Yet the Creator is Allah, exalted is He; He creates through His speech, but His speech itself is not a creator.

No one has ever said that the speech of Allah created the heavens and the earth.

The Torah is the speech of Allah, and the Gospel is the speech of Allah, yet no one claims that any of these created the heavens and the earth, nor does anyone say, ‘O speech of Allah, forgive me and have mercy on me.’

Thus the assertion of these people that His Word is the creator and that He created by means of it is self-contradictory; for if it were itself the creator, it could not be that by means of which creation occurs—for that by means of which creation occurs is not the creator.

Third point:

It may be said to you: Your statement, ‘the creative Word of God’—is it