People agree that one may say without qualification, “Zayd’s speech is in this book,” and “What we have heard is Zayd’s speech.” Yet no rational person would consider it permissible to say that Zayd himself is in this speaker or in these sheets of paper.

The revealed texts explicitly state that the Quran is in people’s breasts, as in the Prophet’s words, may Allah bless him and grant him peace:

“Keep the Quran fresh in your memory, for it escapes from men’s breasts more readily than livestock escape their tethers.”

And his words:

“A breast containing nothing of the Quran is like a ruined house.”

There are other such texts. No rational person regards this as equivalent to saying that Allah is within our breasts and bodies. Thus, when a man called al-Sūrī introduced the claim that anyone who says, “The Quran is in our breasts,” has professed the Christians’ doctrine, Ahmad was told, “A fourth Jahmī sect has appeared”—meaning the Khalqiyyah, the Lafziyyah, the Wāqifah, and this fourth group. He vehemently denounced this and said, “This is worse than the Jahmiyyah.”

It is indeed as he said. None of the Jahmiyyah denies that one may say, “The Quran is in people’s breasts.” Only someone utterly astray and ignorant would liken this to the Christians’ doctrine of indwelling. For the Christians say, “The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are one God,” and that the Word, which is the divine nature, clothed itself in human nature. In their view, he is a god who creates and provides.

Hence they said, “Allah is the Messiah, son of Mary,” and they say, “The Messiah is the son of Allah.” This is why their position is contradictory: if what clothed itself in the Messiah was the God encompassing the persons of the Trinity, then it was the Father himself; but if it was one attribute among