that is above is a body.

The second is that bodies are alike.

The third is that this likeness is what is meant by “like” in the Arabic language in which the Quran was revealed.

The error arises from confusion, ambiguity, and lack of precision in the terms “body” and “like.”

The response is this: in Arabic, “body” means the physical body, whereas in your usage it means something that can be pointed to. Thus, air, water, fire, and similar things are not bodies in Arabic usage, but they are bodies in your terminology.

Now, “body” has a narrower meaning in Arabic than in your usage, and sound reason makes it clear that gold is not like silver, bread is not like earth, and blood is not like gold. Sound reason and sensory perception therefore establish that things called jasad (bodily form), jism (body), and the like in Arabic are not all alike. How much more, then, does this apply to a broader category, such as whatever can be pointed to or has the three dimensions: length, breadth, and depth?

Moreover, what they mean by these expressions is not their meaning in ordinary language. In their terminology, a single seed, such as a lentil or a sesame seed—or even the speck of which Allah says:

“Indeed, Allah does not wrong anyone even by the weight of a speck.”
[al-Nisā’: 40]

—has length, breadth, and depth.

Yet it is self-evident from Arabic usage that people say of human beings, “This one is tall, and that one is short.” The same applies to human limbs, such as the hand