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Know that I am not aware of anyone in any community before these people who held these doctrines in this form. However, in some philosophical works transmitted from Aristotle, I have seen him report that a philosopher said, “Existence is one,” and then refute it. It is condemnation enough of a doctrine that even the Sabian dialectical theologians will not accept it.

These doctrines arose only with the emergence of the Tatar state. Previously, disbelief had taken the form of universal indwelling, union, or particular indwelling. The classification is fourfold: whoever maintains that the Lord is truly the servant must assert either that He indwells the servant or that He unites with him. In either case, he must hold that this is restricted to certain created beings, such as the Messiah, or that it extends to all created beings. Thus, there are four categories.

The first is particular indwelling. This is the doctrine of the Nestorian Christians and others like them, who say that the divine nature indwelt the human nature and clothed itself in it, like water within a vessel. Through their interaction with Muslims, these people gave definite form to Christian disbelief. The first of them appeared during the reign of al-Ma’mūn.

This is also the doctrine of those extremists within this community who agree with these Christians, such as the extremists among the Rāfidah, who say that He indwelt ‘Alī ibn Abī Tālib and the imams of his household, and the extremist ascetics