CHAPTER 5: EACH ATTRIBUTE IS DIFFERENT FROM THE OTHER
If they mean that the attributes of the Lord, the Exalted and Glorious, are separate from Him, and that is truly what they are saying, and that these attributes are also attached to Him, this would mean associating between two antitheses. Mentioning the example of the sun is not correct; rather it is considered an argument against them, not for them.
The rays that are dependent upon the air, earth, mountains, trees and walls are not those that are dependent upon the sun, while those that are dependent upon the sun are not dependent upon the air and the earth.
If they claim that God gives of his Divine Knowledge to the hearts of all the prophets just like sun rays,
it should be said to them: this was not something done exclusively for Christ. Allah gives from His knowledge to all the prophets. Neither does this mean that the Divine Entity or His Dependent Attributes becomes immanent in any of His creatures, nor does it mean that the servant becomes a god to be worshipped simply because of the knowledge and faith he has been granted.
They say, “God is one, Who is the only Creator and the only Lord.”
This is true, but they contradict it by saying in their Creed of Faith, “And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds [God of God], Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance [essence] with the Father.”
Thus, they continue their argument by saying they are two gods, and then they argue that the Holy Spirit is a third god that should also be worshipped. Therefore, they argued that there are three gods but said, “We prove that there is only one god.” This is a manifest discrepancy, which is associating between two contradictory statements: one affirms and one refutes.
That was why some wise people said, “Most people’s beliefs could be conceivable except for that of the Christians, because those who established this belief could not understand what they were saying. So, they spoke out of ignorance and associated contradictory meanings. That was why some said, ‘If ten Christians gather, they will end up with eleven different opinions.’ Others said, ‘If one asks one of the Christians, along with his wife and his son about their monotheism, the man will say one opinion, his wife will say another and his son will say a third one.'”
Their claim that God is neither separated nor divided and this contradicts with what they mention in their Canon and in the examples, they provide to support their claim. They expressed this by using the analogy of the sunray, which is, in fact, separated and divided. If the sunray is reflected upon a given surface, it will be a division or a part of the original sunray. In addition, some of it will disappear while some will remain. This means that if an object is placed over the surface in which the ray is reflected, it will be divided into two halves. Thus, the part of the ray which existed between the two halves, and which is now above the separating object, then acts as a separator between the two halves.
The reason for this is that sun rays are dependent upon the earth and the air, each of which is separated and divided, and whatever is dependent upon the dividable is also divisible. For this reason, the sunray reflected upon a divisible surface or place is also divisible. This necessitates the ability of the dependent object to be divided.
They also claim that God was united with Christ, and then Christ ascended to heaven and sat on the right side of the Father. In addition, one of their beliefs is that from the moment the divine entity united with the human, they were not separated. The one who ascended to heaven and sat on the right side of the Father was Christ who is a divine-human entity, a full god and a full human being. They do not say that the one sitting on the right side of the father is the human entity only, but they claim it is the unified divine human entity that sat on the right side of the divine entity. What can be a clearer division and separation than this? None of the prophets ever said such a thing. It was even said, “These words have a meaning that we do not understand.” However, the meaning belongs to their priests who wrote it down and rendered it the creed of their belief. If they spoke of that which they themselves could not comprehend, they would be counted among the ignorant people who should not be followed. No one can comprehend how the divine entity that was united with the human entity could sit at the right side of the Divine Entity, which is free from being united! This free divine entity is separate and different from the united divine entity and is not connected to it. It is only adjacent to it, so that which is adjacent to the free divine entity is the united entity composed of the natures of the human and the divine. This is a true division and separation of the divided parts from the other.
It should also be said to them, “Is the thing united with Christ the Divine Entity of the Lord of the Worlds or one of His Attributes?”
If he is the Entity of the Father, he will be the father himself. Thus, Christ becomes the father, a falsehood about which all Christians agree, for they say, “He is God and he is the Son of God,” just as Allah related about them. They do not say he is the father and the son at the same time. According to them, the father is God, and this is another example of their inconsistency.
If they say that the thing united with Christ is an attribute of the Lord, we say that the divine attributes are inseparable from the Lord. They can neither unite with nor be immanent in anything other than the Divine Entity. Moreover, the attribute in itself is not the Creating God, the Lord of the Worlds. It is only an attribute, and no sane person would ever say that the Speech of Allah, His Knowledge, or His Life is the Lord of the Worlds Who created the heavens and the earth. If it is claimed that Christ is an attribute of God, he would not be God, and he would not be the Lord of the worlds or the Creator of the heavens and the earth.
But the Christians say that Christ is the Lord of the worlds, the Creator of all things. He is the One Who created Adam and Maryam (Mary, may Allah be pleased with her), even though he is the son of Adam and the son of Maryam. He is the Creator of all that due to his divine entity, and he is also the son of Adam and Maryam by means of his human entity. If it is said that Christ is the divine attribute, an attribute can not create. How can this be while Christ is not the divine attribute itself, but rather a created being made by a Word from Allah, and thus is called the Word of Allah, as Allah created him by the word, ‘Be’?
The Exalted says,
which means, “Such is Isa (Jesus), son of Maryam (Mary), (it is) a statement of truth, about which they doubt (or dispute). It befits not (the Majesty of) Allah that He should beget a son [this refers to the slander of Christians against Allah, by saying that ‘isa (Jesus) is the son of Allah]. Glorified (and Exalted be He above all that they associate with Him). When He decrees a thing, He only says to it, ‘Be!’ and it is.” (Maryam, 19: 34-35)
Allah called Isa (Jesus, peace be upon him) His Spirit, as He created Him through the breath of the Holy Spirit into His mother, unlike all other human beings who are created from a human father. Allah, the Exalted, says,
which means, “‘0 Maryam (Mary)! Verily, Allah gives you the glad tidings of a Word [‘Be!’ – and he was! i.e., ‘Isa (Jesus) the son of Maryam (Mary)] from Him, his name will be the Messiah ‘Isa (Jesus), the son of Maryam (Mary), held in honor in this world and in the Hereafter, and will be one of those who are near to Allah. He will speak to the people in the cradle and in manhood, and he will be one of the righteous.’ She said, ‘0 my Lord! How shall I have a son when no man has touched me.’ He said, ‘So (it will be) for Allah creates what He wills. When He has decreed something, He says to it only, ‘Be!’ and it is.” (Al-‘imran, 3: 45-47)
If they say, “He is united with some of the Divine Entity and some of its Attributes, they will be believing in the division and the separation of the Divine Entity which is clearly false. Moreover, concerning their saying, “Very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance [essence] with the Father; by whom all things were made,” it should be said to them, “This begotten child who is his father’s equal in essence and who is a very god from a very god is either a dependent attribute or an independent entity. If it is the first, we say that an attribute cannot be a god or a creator, about which it cannot be said that it is a begotten being from God or that it is His equal in essence. None of the prophets or their followers called any of Allah’s Attributes a child or His son. It cannot be said that an Attribute of Allah is begotten from Him. No sane person would say that an attribute is begotten from the original entity.
They say, “Christ created the heavens and the earth because of the union between His Divine Nature and that anciently begotten Son who is equated to the Father in essence.”
This means that he is not only an attribute but also an independent entity, not a dependent attribute. If this separation and division in the Divine Entity is their premise, the claim concerning natural begetting will entail that a part of him has been removed. The Exalted says,
which means, “Yet they assign to some of His slaves a share with Him (by asserting that He has children, and considering them as equals or co-partners in worship with Him). Verily, man is indeed a manifest ingrate! Or has He taken daughters out of what He has created, and He has selected for you sons? And if one of them is informed of the news of (the birth of) that which he set forth as a parable to the Most Beneficent (Allah) (i.e., of a girl), his face becomes dark, gloomy, and he is filled with grief! (Do they then like for Allah) a creature who is brought up in adornments (wearing silk and gold ornaments, i.e., women), and in dispute cannot make herself clear? And they make the angels who themselves are slaves to the Most Beneficent (Allah) females. Did they witness their creation? Their evidence will be recorded, and they will be questioned!” (Az-Zukhruf, 43: 15-19)
Some Christian scholars seek to prove that begetting and filiation is an eternal attribute that is dependent on the substantive, namely the son. They sometimes call this ‘uttering the word,’ and sometimes call it ‘knowledge’ and at other times they call it ‘wisdom.’
They say, “He is begotten from God, so he is God’s son.” None of the prophets or their followers ever said this. This is simply an invention of the Christians.
No one understands the meaning of the words “begetting” and “filiation” this way.
The prophets only attributed the word ‘son’ to creatures. They (i.e., the Christians) said, “He is an actual father to Christ and a guarding supporting father to others.” From this statement it is clearly understood that the Christians are referring to the natural form of begetting in which a part of the father is separated. However, their scholars deny this, so they neither followed the prophets nor spoke reasonably. Thus, they deviated from what they reported from the prophets and then caused their followers to also go astray. They did not say that the begetting of God is similar to that of animals, in which something is separated from an existing being. Instead, they said that it is a divine form of begetting in which a part was separated from the divine entity and was immanent in the human one. In the end, however, nothing can be understood from the word ‘begetting’ except its usual meaning.
In addition, they say, “And [I believe] in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver of Life; who proceeded from the Father [and the Son]; who with the Father and the Son together is worshiped and glorified; who spoke by the Prophets.” They say that the Holy Spirit emanated from the Father, and is worshipped and glorified, but this claim is false because it cannot be said about the Lord’s life, which is dependent upon Him. His life has not emanated from Him like the rest of His Attributes. If the independent attribute is emanating, His Knowledge and Power and the rest of His Attributes will also emanate from Him. Moreover, emanation in speech is more evident than in life, for speech comes out from the speaker while life does not come out from the living. If any of the attributes emanated, it would be the attribute, which they call ‘the son/ as well as ‘knowledge,’ ‘speech’ and ‘speaking.’ According to reason, it is better to say this about speech than about life. They also say, “it is with the father, is worshiped and glorified.” Dependent Divine Attributes can never be with the Lord or worshipped with Him. They say, “He is speaking in the prophets,” but a Dependent Divine Attribute does not speak in prophets. All these are rather the characteristics of the Holy Spirit, which Allah places in the hearts of the prophets, or a characteristic of one of the angels; such as Jibril (Gabriel, peace be upon him), if the Holy Spirit emanated from the Father, and emanation means coming out, that would be clear separation and division.
The similitude the Christians put forward for this emanation is that of the sunray, which is invalid due to some reasons, the most important of which are the following:
-The sunray is dependent on the air and the earth; it is not an independent essence. But to them, the Lord’s life is a living worshipped being and an essence.
-This sunray, that is dependent on the air and the earth, is not an attribute of the sun or dependent upon it, while the Lord’s life is one of His dependent attributes.
-They specify emanation only for the Holy Spirit and do not say that the Word has emanated. Emanation of speech is perhaps more reasonable than that of life. The more one ponders on their words in the Canon and so on, the more one finds contradictions between those books on the one hand, and the Torah, Gospel and the rest of the Books of Allah on the other.
By: Sheikhul-Islaam Ibn Taymiyah
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