—a contingent marriage that corresponds to that contingent birth. Allah, exalted is He, says:

“How could He have a child when He has no consort? He created all things, and He is, of everything, All-Knowing.” (Qur’an 6:101)

For this reason the doctrine of ḥulūl (indwelling) is easier to accept than that of ittiḥād (union). Whoever asserts that the Divine merely indwelt in the Messiah’s body, touched it and came into immediate contact with it—as water permeates milk—makes a lighter claim than one who maintains that He actually fused with him and became one with him. Thus, if someone were to say that Mary is the Eternal’s companion, consort, and wife, the most such a statement entails is that He directly contacted, touched, and was connected with her. Any degree of contact that exists between a husband and his wife is far less problematic than their claim that the Eternal united with the temporal and effectively became it—whether as one essence, one person, or one will. Hence every rational person knows that physical intercourse is less staggering than physical begetting. When the male of any creature mates with the female, it is merely a matter of the male touching the female; the female is not thereby generated from him. Therefore, if they allow that something contingent and created can be generated from the pre-eternal Lord and can even unite with Him, then allowing that He might simply touch it is, a fortiori, still more plausible.