and His Messenger, held among their foremost doctrines that God dwelt in and united with the Messiah, son of Mary. Whoever professes divine indwelling and union with anyone other than the Messiah—as the extremists claim concerning ʿAlī, the followers of al-Hallāj concerning al-Hallāj, and the followers of al-Hākim concerning al-Hākim, and others like them—holds a doctrine worse than that of the Christians, for the Messiah, son of Mary, is superior to all these figures.

These people are of the same kind as the followers of the Dajjāl (the False Messiah), who claims divinity so that people will follow him. Yet the Dajjāl says to the sky, “Send down rain,” and it rains; to the earth, “Bring forth vegetation,” and it does so; and to the ruins, “Bring forth your treasures,” and their treasures of gold and silver come out with him. He kills a believing man, then gives the command, and the man rises. Despite all this, he is the one-eyed liar, the Dajjāl. Whoever claims divinity without such extraordinary feats is even lesser than this Dajjāl.

Al-Hallāj performed tricks and practised various forms of sorcery, and books on sorcery are attributed to him.

In short, there is no disagreement within the Muslim community that anyone who professes that Allah dwells in a human being and unites with him, that a human being can become a god, and that this person is one of the gods, is a disbeliever whose blood may lawfully be shed. It was on this basis that al-Hallāj was executed.

Whoever says that Allah spoke through al-Hallāj’s tongue, that the speech heard from al-Hallāj was Allah’s speech, and that it was Allah who said through his tongue, “I am Allah,” is a disbeliever by the unanimous agreement of the Muslims. For Allah does not dwell in human beings, nor has He spoken through a human tongue. Rather, He sends messengers with His speech, and they convey on His behalf what He has commanded them to communicate. Thus, through the tongues of the messengers, He says what He has commanded them