subsists in it, and its constituent parts can be separated from one another. That this is possible for a created being does not entail that it is possible for the Creator. It is known that the Creator is not like created beings, and that these attributes, even if they are entities, are neither flesh, sinew, blood, nor anything of that kind, nor do they belong to the same kind as anything created.

If, then, this is the position he mentioned, stating [that] the Hanbalīs deny [it], and this is the apparent meaning, then, were it something that could not be conceived or imagined, those who heard the Quran and hadith, unbelievers and believers alike, would necessarily have recoiled from it. The polytheists would necessarily have attacked him for bringing something that the natural disposition rejects. Believers, ordinary and learned alike, would necessarily have harboured doubts and difficulties about it, prompting them to ask questions—just as doubts arose in those who heard this while believing that this meaning must be denied, since they regarded it as contradictory. The scholars of the early generations and the leading scholars of the Muslim community would necessarily have spoken to remedy this ailment and dispel this doubt. Doing so would have been among the greatest acts of obedience, indeed, among the most important obligations. Since none of this occurred, it is clear that what you have attributed to them is not something that conception and imagination reject.