and Elijah had both ascended (1) to heaven while still alive and honored; not a single thorn (2) ever pricked them, nor did anyone dare lay claim to them. The Muslims are unanimously agreed that Muḥammad ﷺ likewise ascended to the heavens as a pure servant. The angels ascend to heaven, and the spirits of the believers rise there after leaving their bodies—yet none of them thereby (3) depart from the state of servitude. Has the mere act of ascending to heaven ever, in any respect, released anyone from being a servant?!

If you deified him because the prophets called him “god,” “lord,” “master,” and the like, remember that many of God’s names have long been applied to others among all nations and in every scripture. The Romans, Persians, Indians, Syriacs, Hebrews, Copts, and others have habitually styled their kings “gods” and “lords.” In the first book of the Torah we read: “The sons of God went in to the daughters of men; seeing that they were exceedingly beautiful, they married them” (5). In the second book of the Torah, in the story of the exodus from Egypt, it is said: “I have made you a god to Pharaoh” (6). And in Psalm eighty-two of David: “God has taken His stand in the midst of the gods” (7). That is how it appears in the Hebrew text, whereas the one who rendered it into Syriac altered it to: “God has taken His stand in the congregation of the angels.” In that same psalm he addresses a people by inspiration, saying: “I had thought you were gods …”