there is no dispute that they constitute the vast majority of humanity, both earlier and later generations, and include scholars and devout worshippers whose number is known only to the Lord of His servants. Even if this were not one of the strongest proofs that Allah is a body, according to the premises you have established, it would still be necessary to answer its proponent’s argument. For opposing the vast majority of humanity is no trivial matter.

The argument you have presented to deny that Allah is a body cannot serve as an answer, because the reasoning you attribute to them entails that they have argued for His being a body on the grounds you have reported. This is a counterargument to what you have presented. Unless you demonstrate that this counterargument is unsound, your argument has no greater claim to refute theirs than theirs has to refute yours. Yet you have offered no proof whatsoever that their argument is unsound.

If it is said, “This argument rests on reasoning by analogy from the observed to the unseen, which is invalid,” the reply is: “By the agreement of all peoples, reasoning by analogy from the observed to the unseen includes both valid and invalid forms. Unless you demonstrate that this instance is invalid, it cannot be rejected merely on that basis.”

The thirty-fifth argument: The reasoning you attribute to them can be formulated in the same way as the analogical argument for Allah’s being above creation. One may say: “We have never witnessed any self-subsisting being except a body,” or, “We have never witnessed any living, knowing, powerful being except a body.” Thus, the fact that a self-subsisting or living being is specifically a body