your Lord: ‘Call upon Me; I will answer you. Indeed, those who are too proud to worship Me will enter Hell, humiliated.’”

He described the choicest of His creation as His servants, saying, Most High:

“A spring from which Allah’s servants drink, causing it to flow abundantly.”

And He said:

“The servants of the Most Merciful are those who walk humbly upon the earth,”

and the subsequent verses.

When Satan said:

“He said, ‘My Lord, because You have led me astray, I will surely make evil alluring to them on earth and mislead them all, except Your chosen servants among them,’”

Allah, Most High, said:

“Indeed, you will have no authority over My servants, except those of the misguided who follow you.”

He described the angels in the same terms, saying:

“They say, ‘The Most Merciful has taken a child.’ Glory be to Him! Rather, they are honoured servants. They do not speak before He speaks, and they act at His command,”

up to His words:

“And they stand in awe of Him.”

And He, Most High, said:

“They say, ‘The Most Merciful has taken a child.’ You have indeed made a monstrous claim. The heavens almost rupture at it, the earth splits apart, and the mountains collapse in devastation, because they attribute a child to the Most Merciful. It is not fitting for the Most Merciful to take a child. There is no one in the heavens and the earth who will not come to the Most Merciful as a servant. He has certainly accounted for them and numbered them precisely. Each of them will come to Him on the Day of Resurrection alone.”

Allah, Most High, said of the Messiah—for whom divinity and prophethood were claimed:

“He was only a servant whom We favoured and made an example for the Children of Israel.”

For this reason, the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said in an authentic hadith:

“Do not lavish excessive praise on me as the Christians did on Jesus