We have already explained that the absence of likeness between the Creator and creation is known through both revelation and reason. This does not entail affirming something whose nonexistence is self-evident, or affirming an existent being neither within the world nor outside it. Reason likewise entails that the Creator is unlike creation, as we explained earlier. For likeness requires that whatever is possible, necessary, or impossible for either must also be possible, necessary, or impossible for the other. This would require one and the same being to be both Creator and created, eternal and originated, existent and nonexistent, necessary and contingent, capable and incapable, knowing and ignorant, self-sufficient and needy, living and dead.

This was therefore the position of all the early generations: they affirmed these attributes known through revelation while denying any likeness to creation. They condemned those who likened Allah to His creation, but their condemnation of the Jahmiyya, who deny [Him], was even greater. They were more emphatic in declaring them misguided and unbelievers, and their statements concerning them were more numerous and more forceful.

As for the terms “body,” “substance,” “that which occupies space,” “composite,” and “divisible,” none is found in the statements of any of the early generations, just as none is found in the Quran or Sunnah, whether by way of denial or affirmation. Their only mention occurs in condemnation of those who entered into such discussions among the deniers, who denied what was conveyed by