Third, the occasion for the revelation of this verse was someone asking about the Lord, exalted is He, whether He was made of gold, silver, or something else. Allah, exalted is He, then revealed this verse, explaining that He is not of the same kind as any created thing.

Fourth, He declared in this surah that He is One and that none is equal to Him. This rules out His being of the same kind as any created thing.

Fifth, He declared in this surah that He is al-Samad; He did not say that He is merely samad. Everything other than Him is susceptible to separation and division, whereas He is al-Samad, who cannot be divided or separated in any way whatsoever.

As for these later scholars’ use of this as evidence to deny that He is a body or has a limit, that too is invalid. Indeed, it reverses what the evidence indicates. Being solid does not preclude the thing so described from being a body or having a limit, as with other things described as samad. Angels are described as samad, as are solid bodies. How, then, can it be said that being samad, or solid and without a hollow interior, is incompatible with being a bounded body? This turns the language on its head and changes its meaning.