son of Mary—the word of truth about which they dispute.”

“It is not befitting for Allah to take a son. Glory be to Him! When He decrees a matter, He only says to it, ‘Be,’ and it is.”

Even if it were supposed that he himself was Allah’s speech, like the Torah, the Gospel, and the rest of Allah’s speech, neither Allah’s speech nor any of His attributes would be a creator, a lord, or a god.

Thus, when Christians say that the Messiah is the Creator, they are in error both in making an attribute a creator and in making him that very attribute, whereas he was merely created through the word. Moreover, their doctrine of the Trinity and their claim that the attributes are three are false. Their doctrine of indwelling and union is also false. The falsity of their doctrine is therefore evident from these considerations and others.

Had they said that the Lord has attributes that subsist in Him, without asserting either union or indwelling, this would have been the position of the vast majority of Muslims who affirm the attributes.

But if they say that the attributes are independently subsisting entities, this is an obstinate denial of the obvious: they are combining two contradictory claims. Furthermore, their restriction of the attributes to three is false, for the Lord’s attributes are more numerous than that. He, glory be to Him, exists, lives, knows, and has power. Yet they recognize only three hypostases, which they identify as attributes. Thus, they sometimes explain them as existence, life, and knowledge, and sometimes as existence, power, and knowledge. Their inconsistencies are numerous.

Their doctrine is inherently false, and no rational mind can grasp it coherently. Hence the saying: “If ten Christians came together, they would part with eleven different opinions.”