The eighth point: Suppose these people do believe Him to be composite and compounded. It has already been explained that these are ambiguous terms used to deny truth as well as falsehood. There is no blame in accepting a sound meaning established by the Quran and reason and agreed upon by the early generations of the Muslim community and its leading scholars, even if certain terminologies call that meaning “composition” and “combination.”

A statement is censured either for its wording, because revelation has censured that wording, or for conveying a meaning condemned by revelation. Yet no accepted statement denies “composition” and “combination” of Allah in these very terms, nor does any such statement deny the meaning they themselves intend by them. Nothing in the words of Allah, His Messenger, or any of the community’s early generations negates it concerning matters known only to Allah. Accordingly, there is no disgrace in holding a belief that revelation has not censured; disgrace lies only in what contradicts revelation.

As for reason, it has already been explained that they contradict both its self-evident truths and its inferential conclusions, whereas their opponent contradicts neither. He contradicts only invalid analogies of the same kind as those employed by the polytheists who set up equals to their Lord—those who equated the Lord of all worlds with the idols they had adopted. These analogies are like the idols concerning which one must