“Have you, then, perceived anything of Him?”

He replied, “No.”

They said, “Then how do you know that He is a god?”

The narrator said: Al-Jahm became bewildered and, for forty days, did not know whom he worshipped. Then he devised an argument like that of the Christian heretics. These Christian heretics claim that the spirit within Jesus—may Allah bless him and our Prophet and grant them peace—is from the spirit of Allah and from His essence. When Allah wishes to bring something about, He enters one of His creatures and speaks through that creature’s tongue, commanding whatever He wills and forbidding whatever He wills, while He is a spirit hidden from sight.

Al-Jahm devised a similar argument and said to the Sumani, “Do you not claim that there is a spirit within you?”

He replied, “Yes.”

Al-Jahm asked, “Have you seen your spirit?”

He replied, “No.”

Al-Jahm then asked,