Ibn Sīnā and his followers among the Dahriyya, who said:

“Everything other than Allah is contingent, and everything contingent sets; therefore, whatever sets cannot be necessarily existent.”

Al-Rāzī included this nonsense in his commentary. He and others may also say:

“Everything that sets undergoes change, and everything that undergoes change is contingent.”

Thus they infer contingency from change, just as most of these thinkers inferred origination from change. Each of them says: “This is the method of Abraham, Allah’s intimate friend.”

[The Second Point]

It may be said:

“We concede that the Prophets did not call people by this method, nor did they explain that He is not a body.”

This is the position of the foremost scholars and leaders of the various groups that deny the attributes. They know and acknowledge that such negation was not based on a method derived from the Prophets, and that the Prophets did not indicate it, either explicitly or through the apparent meaning of their words. They say:

“The words of the Prophets indicate only affirmation, either explicitly or through their apparent meaning.”

But they said:

“If reason establishes negation, we cannot invalidate what reason establishes.”