The third: bodies that are not ordinarily divided, but are known to be divisible. No Muslim has said that the Creator—glory be to Him—can break apart, with one part becoming detached from another. Rather, He is One, Self-Sufficient.

Those who say that He is a body fall into two groups:

The first hold—and this is the position of their scholars—that He is a body unlike other bodies, just as one says: an essence unlike other essences; One possessing attributes unlike others possessing attributes; One subsisting in Himself unlike others subsisting in themselves; and a thing unlike other things. They say that, in His true nature, He does not resemble anything else in any respect. Yet this affirms that He has a magnitude by which He is distinguished, just as saying that He possesses attributes affirms a reality by which He is distinguished. This is a necessary property of everything that exists.

Thus they say: “By saying that He is a body, we mean that He subsists in Himself,” and similar expressions, while also saying that He possesses the three dimensions. For they say: “No self-subsisting existent can be conceived of except in this way.”

They also say that when the polytheists and the People of the Book questioned the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, asking, “Is your Lord, whom you worship, made of gold? Is He made of silver? Is He made of such and such?” Allah revealed this surah to affirm His transcendence—that He is not of the same kind as any of the