Moreover, we have found that all of the prophets’ statements are affirmations that these objectors themselves describe as tajsīm (embodiment).

Thus, by their reckoning and ours alike, the revealed texts taken at face value point to embodiment, and they possess no passage that negates this. We have therefore held fast to those texts, and whoever challenges the affirmation of the divine attributes does not do so with explicit prophetic evidence but only with rational arguments.

They say instead, “The Christians have contradicted the unmistakable dictates of reason and the plain speech of the prophets, and have clung to a handful of ambiguous phrases. We, for our part, have followed the prophets’ texts and have not opposed any of their unequivocal statements.”

Our adversary, however, retorts, “You have run afoul of reason.” We contest him on this, maintaining that reason is with us, not against us, and that the rational claims he advances against the prophets’ words are spurious.

Alternatively, they may say, “We and the Christians both agree that we do not oppose the prophets’ words with purely speculative arguments. Rather, we have adhered to their many clear, outwardly evident pronouncements for which there is no contradictory text whatsoever; they, on the other hand, have ignored those numerous definitive statements and seized upon a few that are ambiguous.”

The extremists among them—whom the leading imams of the Muslims, indeed the great majority, declare to be unbelievers—go even further. They allege that Allah descends to the earth on the afternoon of the Day of ʿArafah, embraces the pilgrims who are on foot, shakes hands with those on mounts, strolls across the land so that every place His feet touch turns lush and green, and the like.

This claim is no more startling than the Christians’ assertion that He is the Messiah and that divinity and humanity have become one.