the expression implies corporeality and that these texts mentioned in the Quran indicate that Allah is a body. Yet, having conceded this implication to them, he has offered nothing to counter it. For the arguments he and others have presented have already been examined, making it clear to anyone who understands them that they are not proofs at all, and that the rational arguments they report from their opponents in support of affirmation are stronger than their own stated arguments for negation. Thus, his concession that the Quran supports his opponents’ position remains unopposed.

The second response is that reinterpreting these texts on the grounds that their apparent meaning implies corporeality is not permissible. For the assertion, “This is an attribute of bodies,” applies to every name and attribute of Allah, exalted is He: His being existent, self-subsisting, possessed of attributes, and distinct from everything else; and His being living, knowing, powerful, hearing, seeing, compassionate, and merciful. For people acknowledge the application of all these names and descriptions only to bodies. If this requires that names and attributes be diverted from their apparent meanings, then all of them must be so diverted.

It is well known that whenever any of them is diverted from its apparent meaning, it must be assigned another meaning expressed by another term. Yet this second term is subject to the same objection as the first, since it too is known to be applied only to