According to them, composition takes five forms, as Ibn Sīnā and others explain, and as al-Ghazālī reports from them in The Incoherence of the Philosophers and elsewhere.

The first is the composition of an existing thing from existence and essence.

The second is the composition of a thing’s reality from general and particular aspects, such as existence, which is general, and necessity, which is particular.

The third is the composition of an essence possessing attributes from the essence and its attributes.

The fourth is the composition of a self-subsisting essence, distinct from others and capable of being pointed to, from the indivisible atoms of which it is said to be composed.

The fifth is its composition from the matter and form of which it is said to be composed.

We have discussed this at length elsewhere and shown that no self-subsisting being, whether necessary or contingent, can exist without these features which they call composition. We have also shown that their designation of this as composition is mistaken. Even if they say, “This is a technical convention we have adopted,” existing realities and intelligible meanings are not abolished by the errors of those who are mistaken or by their verbal conventions.

We have also shown that nothing in reason precludes this. Rather, reason confirms the revealed evidence affirming Allah’s attributes—exalted is He—and His being distinct from His creation. Reason has established the existence of a being whose existence is necessary in itself and who is independent of all else.

As for the fact that this being can only be living, knowing, and powerful, or can only be