It may be replied: This answer rests on the principle that what is “other than” a thing is whatever can be separated from it. Allah, glorified is He, is able to separate the parts of every created thing from one another. If its parts can be separated from one another, one part may be other than another. Likewise, a created being’s knowledge and power are accidents because their inherence in it is contingent rather than necessary—that is, they are incidental to the subject possessing them, not inseparable from it. But nothing of the Lord’s essential attributes can be separated from Him, nor can He be divided. Rather, He is One, the Self-Sufficient Master. Consequently, according to these people, it does not follow that one part of Him is other than another, in keeping with the principle they established.

The fifth point: They have pressed upon their opponent the same reasoning he himself invoked. They say: If He is living, knowing, and powerful, and nothing possessing these qualities is known in the observable realm except a divisible, composite body, yet the opponent affirms Him to be living, knowing, and powerful without being a divisible, composite body, then the same may apply if He is immense, great, and exalted, even though nothing immense, great, and exalted is known in the observable realm except