Section: Refutation of the Christians’ Analogy between the Word of God’s indwelling in the human nature and the inscription of words on parchment

Saʿid ibn al-Baṭrīq said:

“Just as the word that a human being brings forth from his intellect is committed to parchment, and is, in its entirety, truly present in that parchment without leaving the intellect from which it was begotten, while the intellect that begot it does not leave it— for the intellect is recognised by means of the word, since the word abides within it—so the whole word remains in the intellect that produced it, the whole word remains in itself, and the whole word remains in the parchment to which it has become joined. In the same way, the Word of God is wholly in the Father from whom It was begotten, wholly in Itself and in the Spirit, and wholly in the human nature (nasūt) into which It descended and with which It became fused.”

It is therefore said to them:

“This very analogy is evidence against you and evidence of the unsoundness of your claim; it is no proof in your favour, and this will become clear in several ways.

First:

If the indwelling of the Word of God—namely the Messiah—within the human nature is like the inscription of speech on parchment, then the Messiah would belong to the same category as the rest of the Word of God: the Torah, the Psalms of David, the Gospel, the Qur’an, and the like. All of these are the Word of God, and they are unanimously acknowledged to be written on scrolls…"