Allah Most High has also said:

“Through it Allah guides those who seek His pleasure to the ways of peace.”

[Al-Mā’idah: 16].

And He has said:

“Indeed, this Quran guides to that which is most upright.”

[Al-Isrā’: 9].

And He has said:

“You are the best community raised up for mankind.”

[Āl ‘Imrān: 110].

These and similar texts each indicate that explaining and knowing these matters are part of what the Messenger brought, what this Book was revealed with, what this community learned, and what this religion encompasses. It therefore cannot be said that the Messenger and the believers disregarded these matters, knowing nothing of them and saying nothing about them, whether in denial or affirmation.

[The sixth ground in response to al-Rāzī’s preceding remarks]

This also includes a response to al-Rāzī’s preceding remarks. Concerning the basis of the argument, one may say: We do not concede that reason contradicts what these texts entail. Rather, the rational arguments that deny this are unsound, as their unsoundness has already been indicated—let alone that the reasoning which contradicts these texts should constitute the basis for knowledge of revelation.

For these rational arguments amount to no more than saying: “If He were above the world, He would be a body; but He is not a body.” The response of those who affirm the divine attributes to this argument is already known. Some reject the first premise, including many theologians, philosophers, and others among the followers of Ibn Kullāb and al-Ash‘arī, as well as scholars of jurisprudence, hadith, and Sufism among the followers of Mālik, al-Shāfi‘ī, Ahmad, Abū Hanīfah, and others. Philosophers likewise reject it, as Ibn Rushd and others have mentioned.

Others reject the second premise, such as the Hishāmiyyah, the Karrāmiyyah, and others. Still others make distinctions according to what is meant by “body.”