This has been discussed at length elsewhere, where it was explained that Allah Most High created self-subsisting entities as they are: they contain no parts from which they were assembled. Allah can, however, divide them and break them down until they become exceedingly small, then change into another kind; within such a small portion, one part is distinguishable from another. There is no self-subsisting entity in existence within which one part cannot be distinguished from another.

Form may be an accidental form, such as shape; in this case, the matter is the body itself. As for form that is the formed thing itself, such as the human being himself, the matter in this case has no substance bearing it. Rather, its matter is that from which it was created. That matter has changed into another form, and the original has perished and ceased to exist, just as semen perishes when it becomes a human being. Nothing remains individually identical between what it changes from and what it changes into; they share only properties common in kind, such as magnitude and the like.

A composite in the intelligible sense is something that was separate and was then assembled by another, just as manufactured things—foods, clothes, buildings, and the like—are assembled from their separate parts.

Allah Most High is far too exalted and great to be described in this way. Indeed, even some of His creatures cannot be so described. The unbelief of anyone who says this, and the falsity of his statement, are plain.

The term “composite” may also be applied to something with different parts, such as the organs of a human being