—putting a detached pronoun where a bound pronoun is required, linking the two without the coordinating waw, and other such solecisms whose details would take too long to recount. The point is that their very statement is false and without substance. They have never conceived an intelligible meaning and then expressed it so that one might say they merely fell short in wording; rather, they are lost in error and ignorance. They grasp no coherent concept and do not know what they are saying. In fact, they hold no settled creed about the Messiah at all: whatever formulation of their innovations they voice is false, and they themselves admit that they do not understand what they are saying.

That is why they declare, “This is beyond reason,” and say, “A human being has united with Him in an incomprehensible way.” Yet what is incomprehensible and what lies beyond reason is not something anyone may affirm or utter on the basis of personal opinion. When, however, the truthful messengers inform us of matters that the human intellect cannot fathom, their truthfulness is recognized; but if someone attributes to them what sound reason plainly knows to be false, it is evident that he is lying about them—whether in wording and meaning together or in one of the two.

As for a person who himself propounds a claim he says he has verified, or who alleges that it explains the words of the prophets, while he has no conception or understanding of what he is saying, such a person is speaking about Allah and His messengers without knowledge. He has committed one of the gravest prohibitions. The Exalted said:

“Say, ‘My Lord has forbidden only indecencies—open or hidden—sin, wrongful oppression, associating with Allah that for which He has sent down no authority, and saying about Allah what you do not know.’” (Q 7:33)