and the particles produce them as a necessary consequence of their nature, each particle producing within itself the accidents that inhere in it. He maintained that length arises when one particle joins another, breadth results when two further particles join them, and depth arises when more particles are superimposed upon those four. The eight particles thus constitute a body with breadth, length, and depth.

He said: Hishām ibn ʿAmr al-Fuwatī held that a body consists of thirty-six indivisible particles. For he posited six constituent units, each consisting of six particles. What Abū al-Hudhayl called a particle, Hishām called a constituent unit. He maintained that a particle cannot come into contact with another, and that contact occurs only between the constituent units. The six particles making up each constituent unit are neither in contact with nor separate from one another; contact and separation apply only to the constituent units. Once constituted in this way, the body can bear all accidents, such as colour, taste, odour, roughness, softness, cold, and the like.