the prophets and the disciples—did any one of them thereby become a god?!

If you say, “We declared him divine because of the wonders that occurred at his hands,” then the wonders of Moses are yet more astonishing. Consider the prophet Elijah: he blessed a widow’s handful of flour and her little oil, and the flour in her jar and the oil in her jug never ran out for seven years (1)!

If you have deified him because he fed thousands of people with only a few loaves (2), then Moses fed his nation for forty years on manna and quail; and Muhammad son of ʿAbdullāh fed an entire army from an exceedingly small provision until they were satisfied and had filled their containers (3). He also gave them all to drink from a quantity of water that would not fill a single hand (4) until every waterskin in the camp was brimming. This is attested about him through mass-transmitted (mutawātir) reports (5)!

If you say, “We made him a god because he cried out to the sea and its waves were calmed,” Moses struck the sea with his staff and it split into twelve pathways, the water standing between them like walls; he likewise caused twelve flowing springs to burst forth from a solid rock!

And if you have proclaimed him a god because he healed the man born blind and the leper, raising the dead is more wondrous than that—while the signs granted to Moses and Muhammad, may God’s blessings and peace be upon them all—