Another group said:
“They are composed of neither of these, but can be divided into indivisible parts.”

Another group said:
“They are composed of neither of these, nor can they be divided endlessly. Rather, when their parts become small, they turn into other bodies, even though one side remains distinguishable from another within them.”

These thinkers affirm neither infinite divisibility nor the existence of anything indivisible. Rather, everything that exists admits of division, but turns into another body while one side remains distinguishable from another. Thus, division without end does not occur within it.

These positions have been discussed at length elsewhere.

The most discerning of the later thinkers, such as Abū al-Husayn al-Basrī, Abū al-Maʿālī al-Juwaynī, and Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Rāzī, ultimately suspended judgment on affirming the existence of the indivisible atom.

If this is the case, no one can demand proof that animals have come into existence on the basis of their being composed of atoms, or of matter and form, until that composition has first been established.

It is evident to every rational person that people’s knowledge of the coming into existence of the things they observe coming into existence—