the angels who convey revelation to him—and certainly not God Himself, even if, for the sake of argument, He were thought to be united with him or indwelling in him.

Accordingly, anyone who asserts that whoever saw the Messiah has, with his very eyes, seen God is guilty of the utmost brazenness, obstinacy, and falsehood, even on the hypothesis that God was present in him or united with him.

It is common knowledge that angels descend upon the Messiah and others and make contact with their spirits, yet people do not see those angels. Indeed, the jinn can enter the children of Adam, but humans do not see them; they see only the body of the person who is seized.

Every human being is accompanied by a counterpart from the angels and a counterpart from the jinn, yet he himself does not see them, nor do the people around him.

At the moment of death the angels attend him, and while he sees them, those around him do not. The Exalted says:

“Then why, when the soul reaches the throat, while you are looking on, and We are nearer to him than you are, but you do not see; then, if you are not to be repaid, bring it back—if you are truthful.” (Qur’an 56:83–87)

So if these created beings—whose association and attachment to human beings is unanimously affirmed by all religious communities, and whose being seen is indeed possible—remain unseen by people, how can it be claimed that the Messiah—whom people saw only as they saw other messengers such as Abraham and Moses, and who possessed nothing that distinguished him from the rest of the messengers—how can it be claimed that those who looked at him actually saw God Himself with their very eyes?