on raising their hands—if they believe that Allah is a body—would provide one of the strongest arguments for those who maintain that He is a body. For those who raise their hands include the prophets and this Muslim community, which does not agree upon misguidance. Thus, what he offered as a response becomes an argument against him.

The thirty-second argument: It may be said: Grant that what you have mentioned is their basis. You have offered no argument to show that this is false beyond saying, “Thus it is clear that the reason for this is familiarity, so it cannot be correct.” Yet it is well known that the mere fact that all nations have become accustomed to something, if it does not establish its truth, does not establish its falsehood either. Their familiarity with it and their habitual practice of it therefore provide no evidence that it is incorrect, such that you could say, “Thus it is clear that the reason for this is familiarity, so it cannot be correct.”

The thirty-third argument: You have stated that the basis of this familiarity is the supplicants’ belief that a living being possessed of knowledge and power can only be a body. It is well known that this, in these very words, is the position of many groups among the speculative theologians, including the Shia, the Karrāmiyyah, and others. As for its meaning, al-Mu’assis and others say that this is the position of anyone who says that Allah is above the Throne or that He may be pointed to