Furthermore, Allah’s words are many and have no end, as He, glorified and exalted be He, says:

“Say, ‘If the sea were ink for the words of my Lord, the sea would be exhausted before the words of my Lord were exhausted, even if We brought the like of it as a further supply.’”

This is the view of the vast majority of people, Muslims and non-Muslims alike. It is the doctrine of the early generations of this Muslim community, who say that He, glorified be He, has always spoken by His will. It is also the view of those who say that He has always been capable of speech, but spoke by His will with temporally originated speech subsisting in His essence, and of those who say that His speech is created in something other than Him.

As for those who say that His speech is one single thing, eternal in its very being, some nevertheless say that it comprises matters without end. Others say that it is, rather, a single meaning, but that the expressions conveying it are multiple. According to these people, that meaning cannot subsist in anything other than Allah; only the created expressions subsist in something other than Him. Nor can the Messiah be any of those expressions.

If, then, according to these people, it is impossible for the Messiah to be anything other than Allah’s speech, it is even more impossible according to the majority. For Allah’s words are many, and the Messiah is not all of them; indeed, he was not even created through all of them. He was created only through one of His words, and he is not that very word: the word is an attribute, whereas the Messiah is a self-subsisting entity.

They are then told: “Your designation of knowledge and the word as an offspring and a son is false, by the agreement of scholars and people of reason. Nor has this been transmitted from any of the prophets.” They say: “Because the essence