if such a claim was indeed made, it is known to be false on numerous grounds. The same applies to the Christians’ claim that the Messiah is Allah’s son and the claim of a group of Jews that Ezra is Allah’s son: He—glorified be He—has refuted these claims through both these arguments.

If it is said:

The statements of ordinary Christians cannot be precisely accounted for. As for what is found in the writings of their scholars and in their books, they say that the hypostasis of the Word, which they call the Son, clothed itself in the Messiah—that is, took him as a covering, just as a person clothes himself in his shirt. Thus, the divine nature clothed itself in the human nature. They say: “In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, one God.”

It has been said that they mean that the Lord exists, lives, and knows: the existing being is the Father, knowledge is the Son, and life is the Holy Spirit. This is the view of many of them. Others say, rather, that He exists, knows, and has power. They say that knowledge is the Word, which clothed itself in human nature, and that power is the Holy Spirit. Thus, they agree that what clothed itself in human nature was the hypostasis of the Word, which is the Son.

They then disagreed about this act of clothing, and about whether the two are one substance or two, and whether they have one will or two. Their statements concerning indwelling and union are confused, and this is not the place to discuss them at length. Indeed, their disagreements over Christian doctrine are too numerous to catalogue precisely. Their doctrine is derived neither from a revealed scripture nor from a messenger sent by Allah, nor does it accord with sound reason.

The Jacobites said: “The result was one substance, one nature, and one hypostasis, like water in milk.” And it was said by