mere magnitude. Indeed, the Quran denies that one thing is like another even though both are bodies—indeed, living creatures, and even human beings—as in His words:

“If you turn away, He will replace you with another people; then they will not be like you.”
[Muhammad: 38]

And Allah, Exalted is He, says:

“Have you considered the semen you emit? Is it you who create it, or are We the Creator? We have decreed death among you, and We are not to be outdone in replacing you with others like you and bringing you into being in forms you do not know.”
[Al-Wāqi‘ah: 58–61]

This accords with Arabic usage, as their poet says:

No creature is like the young man Zuhayr—
None rivals him in virtues.

Another poet says:

Among mankind, not one is like them.

How, then, can His words,

“There is nothing like Him,”

or His words,

“And there is none comparable to Him,”

be used to argue that He has no attributes, that He will not be seen in the Hereafter, or that He is not above the Throne—on the basis of those premises: that if He were so, He would be a body; that bodies are alike; and that Allah has denied that anything is like Him?

Among their astonishing arguments is their claim: “If He possessed those attributes, He would be a body. If He were a body, He would be divisible. Whatever is divisible is not one, whereas Allah has declared that He is One.”

Yet neither in the language of the Arabs nor in that of other peoples do we find