by the five senses—hearing, sight, smell, taste, and touch—and that whatever cannot be perceived by the five senses can only be nonexistent. Thus, the early generations and those who affirm the divine attributes generally hold that Allah can be witnessed, seen, and perceived by the senses. The first to deny that He could be perceived by the senses was Jahm ibn Safwān, when the polytheist Sumanīyah debated him.

The eighteenth point: He said in reply:

“As for their claim that what cannot be perceived by the senses or pointed to is more contemptible than an indivisible atom, we reply: Describing Him as contemptible would only follow if He had a spatial location and magnitude, such that He could be said to be smaller than something else. But if He is exalted above spatial location and magnitude, there would be no basis for comparison between Him and anything else in these respects, and so it would not follow that He is contemptible.”