the transmissions received from him, the Book revealed to him, and his well-known Sunnah: namely, that he affirmed the Messiah to be the servant of Allah and His messenger—nothing more than a messenger—and that he declared unbelievers those Christians who say, “He is Allah,” or “He is the son of Allah,” or “He is the third of three,” and similar claims. In spite of this, their later interpretation of Allah’s words—conveyed by His Prophet Muhammad, may Allah bless him and grant him peace—“so it becomes a bird by Allah’s permission” to mean “by the permission of the lahūt (divinity) that is the Word of Allah united with the nāsūt (human nature),” is a patent lie against Muhammad, may Allah bless him and grant him peace.

Everyone on earth who is acquainted with the life of Muhammad—whether they acknowledge his prophethood or deny it—knows that they are lying about him in this matter. The point here is that these people have imputed to Muhammad an obvious, publicly known falsehood—recognized as such by both his followers and his detractors; it is no subtle or hidden misrepresentation.

Even if, hypothetically, their claim were rationally conceivable, what then when it is flatly impossible to sound minds? Indeed, it is an unintelligible assertion—meaning that its actual occurrence outside the mind is inconceivable. One can, however, discern from their mutual disagreements the unsoundness of the intellects of those who advance the other self-contradictory and corrupt propositions whose realization in external reality is impossible; this has been set forth in detail elsewhere.

For their statement, “by the permission of the lahūt (divinity) which is—”