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therefore, a decisive argument against the hypothesis of
their being one and the same person.

(a) In (Luke xi. 13), the Holy Spirit is declared a “gift”
of God. The contrast between the “good gifts” which are
given by wicked parents and the Holy Spirit that is bestowed
upon the believers by God entirely excludes the idea of
any personality of the Spirit. Can we conscientiously and
positively affirm that Jesus Christ (pbuh) , when he made
the above contrast, meant to teach his hearers that “God
the Father” makes a gift of “God the Holy Spirit” to His
earthly “children”? Did he ever insinuate that he believed
the third person of the Trinity to be a gift of the first
person of the Trinity? Can we conscientiously admit that
the Apostles believed this “gift” to be God the Almighty
offered by God the Almighty to mortals? The very idea of
such a belief makes a Muslim shudder.

(b) In 1 cor. ii. 12, this Holy Spirit is described in
the neuter gender “the Spirit from God”. St. Paul clearly
states that as the Spirit which is in man makes him know
the things that appertain to him so the Spirit of God makes
a man know the things divine (1 Cor. 11). Consequently,
the Holy Spirit here is not God but a divine issue, channel,
or medium through which God teaches, enlightens, and
inspires those whom He pleases. It is simply an action
of God upon human soul and mind. The teacher, the
enlightener, and the inspirer is not directly the Spirit
but God Himself. I remarked that Philon was a student
of Plato’s philosophy. He had never seen Plato, but only
learned Plato’s philosophy and became a philosopher and
a Platonist. In the same sense, I say Peter the Apostle and
‘Ali the Imam received the Holy Spirit of God and became
inspired with the knowledge of God -they became divine.
Just as the philosophy of Plato is not the Plato, and the
Platonist Philon not the creator of that specific wisdom,
so Peter and ‘Ali were not God. They were divine because