no parents, nor from a mother. The earth over which Gabriel’s horse passed would come to life through it, and knowing what people store in their homes is easy for the angels. In the hadith concerning a leper, a bald man, and a blind man, it is related: “The angel passed his hand over them, and they were healed.”

Thus, the angels possess a fuller, higher, and greater share than the Messiah of these qualities on account of which he was worshipped and declared the son of Allah, Mighty and Majestic. Yet they do not disdain to worship Him, so he has all the more reason, as a created being, not to disdain it. As for nearness to Allah and an honoured place with Him, these are matters beyond such miraculous signs. Moreover, at most, the verse establishes their superiority to the Messiah while he is in this worldly life. But once he has taken his place in the Hereafter, and what I shall leave unmentioned has come to pass, on what grounds can it be said that they are superior to him there?

(The second argument:

Allah Most High says to His Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace:

“Say, ‘I do not tell you that I possess Allah’s treasuries, nor do I know the unseen, nor do I tell you that I am an angel.’”

A similar statement occurs in Surah Hūd. This is adduced as evidence in several ways:

First: He grouped possession of Allah’s treasuries and knowledge of the unseen with the denial that he claimed to be an angel, disclaiming all three in a single sequence. If the condition of one who knows the unseen and has power over the treasuries is superior to that of one who does not, then the condition of an angel must be superior to that of someone who is not an angel—even if that person is our Prophet, as in this verse.

Second: He denied himself only a condition greater than the condition he actually possessed, and did not deny himself a condition