The tawḥīd professed by anyone who speaks of His attributes
Is but a borrowed coin the One Himself has rendered void;
His making Himself one is the true tawḥīd,
And every description voiced by those who describe Him is sheer heresy.

Among these people are some who say, “This is the very secret divulged by al-Hallāj and others. In their eyes it is one of the mysteries that the gnostics keep hidden, revealing it only to their own inner circle.”

Others say, “al-Hallāj was killed only because he exposed this secret,” and they recite:

Whoever betrays the secret, killing is his lot
Among men, and no blood-revenge is taken for him,

and the like.

In claiming union (ittiḥād) and indwelling (ḥulūl) with someone other than the Messiah, these people are worse than the Christians themselves. For the Messiah—may Allah’s blessings be upon him—surpasses everyone who is not a prophet, indeed he is superior to the vast majority of the prophets and messengers. If one who claims that the divinity (lāhūt) united with him is a disbeliever, then how much more so is the one who makes that claim for a person of lesser stature?

Moreover, this particular notion of union is different from the general doctrine of union and indwelling advanced by those who say that He is present in His very essence everywhere, or that He is united with all things.