And He says:

“Alms are only for the poor and the needy, those employed to administer them, and those whose hearts are to be reconciled.” [al-Tawbah 60]

Thus, you did not mean anything resembling assembly and composition as understood in the language in which the Quran was revealed. Rather, the intended sense was what you yourselves have termed “assembly” and “composition,” just as the logicians call something possessing attributes “composite” and “assembled.” Those who went astray did so through such ambiguous and equivocal language as these people employ—language with no basis in the Book of Allah or the Sunnah of His Messenger. The imams described this and censured the speculative theologians for such language. Imam Ahmad, for example, said:

“They disagree about the Book, oppose the Book, and agree on opposing the Book. They make assertions about Allah and speak concerning Him and His Book without knowledge. They use equivocal language and deceive ignorant people through the confusion they create.”

This is just as the imams have described. For among the terms these people commonly use in this connection—such as “body,” “that which occupies space,” “substance,” “long,” “broad,” “deep,” “divisible,” “assembled,” and “composite”—there is not a single one