subsisting independently, or an accident. As for a substance, placing it on his shoulders would weigh him down. Yet Allah has favored him by lifting his burden from him, so how could He place upon him something that would weigh him down?

If it were an accident, it would necessarily impart a quality to that locus, for when an accident inheres in a locus, that locus is characterized by it. This would entail that his shoulders possessed [a quality] not found in his other limbs.

This is assuming that the thing was placed on the part of his body between his shoulders. But if it is said that it was between them, above his body, then we ask: What favor inhered in the air above his back [so that] it was farther from him than something in contact with him? To interpret the wording in this way is to trifle with the words of Allah’s Messenger, may Allah bless him and grant him peace.

Sixth: what is this thing that is [one of] the substances