For this reason Imam Aḥmad related from the early generations that they disliked anyone speaking about the ḥulūl (indwelling) of Allah’s speech within His servants, whether by denying it or by affirming it, because the word ḥulūl is ambiguous: sometimes it is intended in a false sense and at other times in a sound sense.

The statements of the prophets themselves contain the term ḥulūl in its correct meaning, yet those whose hearts are deviant—such as the Christians and the like—interpret it in a corrupt way, while others, reacting against them, reject the term altogether with all its meanings. Both positions are mistaken.

We have already pointed out that people commonly say, “You are in my heart,” “You dwell in my heart,” or “You abide in my heart.” They do not mean that the person’s very essence has entered the heart; rather, they mean that his image, mental conception, love, and remembrance have taken up residence there, as similar examples have shown.

What concerns us here is that even if the Nestorians had likened the union and indwelling they claim to the relationship of a sun-ray with clay, their analogy would still be invalid—so what should be said of the Melkites, whose falsehood and misguidance are even greater?

Thus their assertion,

“The likeness of the sun mixing with clay, water, every moist substance, and mud,”

is a faulty analogy for several reasons:

• First, the sun itself neither unites with nor indwells anything else; what reaches the object is only its ray.

• Second, even the ray itself does not fuse with the water and the clay; it merely rests upon them and inheres in them.