Messenger — Exalted Glory —; they branched into nations and divided into parties."

Muhammad is Alive, He Does Not Die

The Indian said: "It is as if you, O Hijazi, are among those who say that the Messenger of Allah — Exalted Glory — died, as the blind commoners say?" He said: "It is so." He asked: "Do you say he died?" The Hijazi said: "By what I see and witness of corruption after existence, and existence after corruption." The Indian said: "It is as if you are saying that Muhammad — Exalted Glory — is from the world of generation and corruption?" The Hijazi said: "Is it as if he were not from the world of generation and corruption?" The Indian said: "No." The Hijazi said: "And what do you say, may Allah support you?" The Indian said: "I say that the Messenger of Allah — Exalted Glory — did not die, and that he was before [the world of] generation. How then could I say he is from the world of generation and corruption?" The Hijazi asked: "And what proof has become clear to you?" The Indian said: "Are you not among those who speak of the report of the Ascension (al-Mi'rāj) and believe in it?

And that the Messenger of Allah — Exalted Glory — said on the Night of Ascension: 'Gabriel ascended with me to my Lord, and I was from Him as the distance of two bow-lengths or nearer'?"

The Hijazi said: "I did not deny that!" The Indian said: "Is it permissible for you, and within the extent of your intellects, that one who had a body composed of four natures should ascend to heaven? Death only enters that which is composed of four natures. Furthermore, you say that for Muhammad no shadow was seen in the sun or the moon; had he a [physical] body, he would have had shadows. You also say: he was before the world of generation and corruption, and you: