faith, nor of the path of the believers, nor of obedience to Allah and His Messenger.

Since that is the case, whoever obliges (1) people to adopt this creed has made it part of faith and religion, and that is an alteration (2) of the religion—just as some innovators among the Jews and Christians, and the innovators of this ummah, altered the religion of the Messengers.

This is clarified by the second point:

Allah, in His Book, declares Himself free of all imperfections—at times by negating them explicitly, and at other times by affirming their opposites. He says,

“He neither begets nor is born (3), and there is none comparable to Him” (3);

and He says,

“Say: All praise belongs to Allah, who has never taken a son, who has no partner in the dominion, and who needs none to protect Him out of weakness” (4);

and He says,

“Blessed is He who sent down the Criterion upon His servant so that he may be a warner to all peoples…” (5);

and He says,

“Allah—there is no deity except Him, the Ever-Living, the Sustainer. Neither drowsiness nor sleep overtakes Him” (6);

and He says,

“Yet they have set up for Allah partners from among the jinn, though He created them, and they falsely attributed to Him sons and daughters…” (7) until His words: “Vision cannot encompass Him, while He encompasses all vision; and He is the Subtle, the All-Aware” (8);

and He says,

“Allah has never taken a son, nor is there any god alongside Him,” up to His words, “Exalted is He above what they associate with Him” (9).