attribute was that no one acknowledges the existence of something in the unseen that is not a body unless he has established by demonstration that something in the observable world has this attribute—namely, the soul. Since the common people cannot attain knowledge of this aspect of the soul, they cannot conceive of the existence of anything that is not a body. Since knowledge of the soul was veiled from them, we know that knowledge of this aspect of the Creator, glorified and exalted be He, was likewise veiled from them.”

I say:

This discussion makes clear that, in his underlying beliefs, he adopts the philosophers’ view that the soul is not a body, and holds the same concerning the Creator. However, he forbids addressing the common people in these terms, because this is inconceivable to their minds. Thus, the finest and most accessible analogies were set forth for them, as he explained when discussing the name Light. This is the position of the leading philosophers on such matters as belief in Allah and the Last Day.

He has demonstrated through clear arguments that the negations advanced by the theologians contradict the revealed Law, and in this he is correct, both in what he professes and in what he privately holds. He has also shown that the theologians’ arguments for denying that Allah is a body are weak, and has demonstrated their invalidity. He states that this can be known only if it is known that the soul is not a body.

Yet it is well known that what he and like-minded philosophers appeal to here is weaker than the arguments for which he faulted the theologians. For the theologians have refuted these arguments of theirs more decisively than the philosophers have refuted the theologians’ arguments.