people and devotees, and their veneration has taken root in the hearts of many scholars, worshipers, and kings, who honor their statements out of blind imitation without actually understanding them. Every Muslim—indeed every rational person—once he truly grasps what they are saying, realizes that these people deny the Creator, reject the messengers and the revealed laws, and corrupt both intellect and religion; (1) and (2) it is not our purpose here to debate them, for the Ashʿarīs do not hold such a view—far be it from them! On the contrary, they are among the sternest in declaring unbelief and combating people who are far less extreme than these; rather, the latter are of the same ilk as the Qarāmiṭah and the Bāṭiniyyah.

As for anyone among the scholastic theologians—whether of the Muʿtazilah, the Ashʿarīs, or the philosophers—who has said, “He is not divisible,” the sense whose falsehood is glaring to them is certainly not what they intend. They merely mean that He exists externally, distinct in His own right, yet without parts or limbs. The deniers of the attributes among the philosophers and others, such as Ibn Sīnā, will likewise say: “The Wājib al-wujūd (Necessary Existent) has no parts—(3) neither parts of definition nor (4) quantitative parts.” By this they mean that He possesses no attribute like knowledge or power, and no component such as a bodily member. They maintain that He exists, distinct from the contingent beings, yet they say