Several authorities on Arabic—among them al-Asmaʿī, Abū Zayd, and others—state that al-jism is identical with al-jasad (the physical body).

The linguists apply this word only to what is thick and dense: they would never refer to air as a jism or a jasad, while they do call the human frame a jasad.

As noted earlier, jism may signify the body itself, or it may denote the body’s size and mass.

Allah, exalted is He, says: “and He increased him abundantly in knowledge and physique” (al-Baqarah 2:247); and He also says: “When you see them, their bodies impress you; and if they speak, you listen to their speech—yet they are like propped-up pieces of timber” (al-Munāfiqūn 63:4).

Thus the term may be intended in either—or both—of these senses.

Subsequently, the speculative theologians broadened the use of the word “jasad” to something more general than its linguistic sense in