I said to them, “They say, ‘We refrain from calling Him a jawhar only because a jawhar is that which accepts an ʿaraḍ (accident) and occupies space’; therefore, you argue, it is impermissible to say of Him—Exalted is He—that He is a jawhar.”

They replied, “It is the dense jawhar that accepts accidents and takes up space, whereas the subtle jawhar neither accepts an accident nor occupies space—such as the jawhar of the soul, the jawhar of the intellect, the jawhar of light, and other created, subtle substances of this kind.

“If created subtle jawhars do not accept accidents and do not occupy space, would the Creator of both the subtle and the dense jawhars, the One who joins the subtles to the denses, then Himself accept accidents and occupy space? Never.”

The response can be given from several angles. One of them is to say: As far as calling the Creator a jawhar is concerned, this is among the least objectionable matters for which the Christians might be censured. Hence some people reject the term only on the grounds of the Revealed Law—or of linguistic usage; others reject it on rational grounds as well; and still others regard the issue as nothing more than a verbal dispute. Indeed, there is a group of Muslims who describe Him as both jawhar and body (jism).

This difference arises because Muslims, with respect to the Names of Allah—Exalted is He—follow two approaches.

Many of them say, “His Names are established by revelation and the Sacred Law; therefore He is to be named only with those Names transmitted by the Law, for naming Him is an act of worship, and acts of worship rest upon textual warrant and strict adherence.”

Others say, “Whatever meaning is sound in the language and is truly affirmed of Him…"