This claim is negated by the contrary fact that He originated the heavens. Then He said:

“How could He have a child?”

He gave three proofs against this. The first is that He has no consort; this rules out birth in its familiar sense. His words:

“He created all things”

rule out birth in the intellectual sense, namely generation, because His creation of all things is incompatible with their being generated from Him.

As for His words:

“And He has knowledge of all things,”

it appears—and Allah knows best—that, since the Christians claimed that what united with the Messiah was the Word, which they interpret as knowledge, while the Sabians who uphold generation and causation do not regard Him as knowing all things, He stated that He has knowledge of all things to affirm this attribute for Himself in refutation of the Sabians, and to deny it to anyone else in refutation of the Christians.

If this is so, the doctrine of those who hold that the intellects and souls—which they claim are the angels—are generated from Him is more explicit than the Christians’ doctrine in asserting that He begot the angels and that they are His sons and daughters: the intellects are His sons, and the souls His daughters.

This also includes those professing Islam who have adopted philosophy. Indeed, I know one of their leading figures who, when asked about the intellect and the soul, said, “They are like male and female.” He thus likened them to a son and a daughter. They hold that these are generated from Him as an effect is generated from its cause: He cannot separate His essence from His effect, nor His effect from Himself, any more than He can separate Himself from Himself. It is like the relation of the sun’s rays to the sun, only more inseparable still.