opposite to it in reality and essence.” You may be told in reply: This is the argument that bodies are alike. It has already been shown to be among the most utterly false arguments in existence. It originated in the teachings of the Muʿtazilah and the Jahmiyyah, as al-Ashʿarī and others have mentioned, just as the first argument originated in the teachings of the philosophers and the Sabians. That first argument is also among the arguments of the Muʿtazilah and the Jahmiyyah.

It has been established that magnitude is an attribute of a thing possessing a determinate magnitude and bounds, not the very thing itself. It has also been established that, even if magnitude were the essence itself, it would not follow that things possessing magnitude must be alike. For they differ in attributes intrinsic to them, and they differ in these intrinsic attributes even though they share the basic nature of