and the consensus of rational people.

This is unlike the celestial sphere, whose coming into existence is not witnessed as that of animals, plants, and minerals is.

Likewise, those who dispute with them concerning the Necessary Being and calling Him a body—such as the Hāshimiyyah, the Karrāmiyyah, and others—or those who do not use that designation, but who say to him, “What you affirm we call a body, or it must be a body,” are just as aware that these observable occurrences come into existence.

If he maintains this, the one who draws the distinction replies:

“The coming into existence of the sperm-drop is witnessed, known, and conceded, as is the coming into existence of similar things. As for the coming into existence of everything you call a body, you have established it only through the proof you mentioned, which is weak, as we shall explain.”

If he says:

“By disputing the coming into existence of the sperm-drop, I mean disputing the coming into existence of the indivisible atoms from which the sperm-drop is composed and assembled, or the coming into existence of its matter, which took on the form of a sperm-drop,”

he may be answered in two ways:

First, by saying: “You have no need of this.”

Second, by saying: “What you have stated is not correct.”