The Holy War — Page 175
Proceedings—Debate 31 May 1893 175 place? And to trust in just one of them is not in accord with your faith. I want to ask you here also, as to whether Jesus, the Messiah, who has been declared to be the manifestation of Allah, was a manifestation of Allah from the very beginning till the very end and was this manifes- tation found in him permanently or did it appear by chance now and then? If it was permanent, then you will have to prove that he also held the Divine attributes of Omniscient and Omnipotent, etc. at all times because the Holy Gospel rejects this. I need not state this again and again. Here I also have to ask another question. You state that there were not two souls in Jesus, that he possessed just one and that it was the human soul that he possessed, in which there was not even an iota of Divinity. And yes, just as God Almighty is present everywhere and as it is written that His spirit was present in Joseph as , so similarly, was it pres- ent with Jesus as ? So how, in his own essence, could Jesus be taken to be the second Person of the Trinity? It is also worth asking you gentlemen whether in your view Jesus, being the second Person of the Trinity, is periodic or permanent? Then you state that He—meaning Allah Almighty—says not to retaliate, but I am surprised why you refrain from retaliation even though the reprisal laws in the Torah are among your established beliefs. And I still have not received from you the answer to this question that since you hold the three persons of the Trinity to be equal in possessing perfect attributes, then—when there is one Perfect Being possessing all perfect attributes, and there is no need for anything beyond that—why is it necessary that there should be other beings? Then, when these perfect entities combine or come together, why is there nothing by way of result that ought to manifest itself necessar- ily as a consequence of this coming together? In other words, what is the reason that despite each of the three beings possessing all the per- fect attributes when they come together, why is there no increase in strength or power? Or, if it has increased and, for example, if before it