First, the Christians affirmed union and inherence in a single person, whereas these people affirm them throughout the entire world. They even relate that the author of Fusūs said: “The Christians fell into unbelief only because they restricted it.” Al-Tilimsānī and other shaykhs of theirs said the same. He explicitly stated in more than one place that the polytheists who worship idols erred only by worshipping some things rather than others. In their view, the person who has attained true realization is one who worships everything and sees everything as both worshipping the Real and being worshipped by Him. Anyone who worships something other than Allah has, in this view, worshipped none but Allah. This embraces every form of polytheism in the world, while also asserting that the partner associated with Allah is Allah Himself, just as the Christians claimed that Allah is the Messiah, son of Mary.

For this reason, the Jahmī shaykhs frequently state explicitly that Allah is in the world like butter in milk. This is the Jacobite doctrine concerning the Messiah: they have said of existence as a whole what the Christians say of the Messiah.

Second, the Christians say that union and inherence are acts of the Lord, and that the divine nature united with the human nature at one time and separated from it at another. These people, however, hold that it is inconceivable for the existence of the Real to be distinct from created beings, to be apart from them, or to be separated from them. These proponents of union