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The foundation upon which these speculative theologians—the Jahmiyyah, the Mu‘tazilah, and those who agree with them—built this position is the question of the indivisible atom. They supposed that affirming the existence of the Creator, that He created the heavens and the earth, and that He will bring about the Resurrection and raise people from their graves was possible only by affirming the indivisible atom. They thus made it a foundation of faith in Allah and the Last Day.

The majority of the Mu‘tazilah and those who agree with them, such as Abū al-Ma‘ālī and his associates, hold that faith in Allah Most High cannot be attained without this, nor can faith in the Last Day. For they maintained that these truths can be known only by knowing that the universe began to exist, and that this can be known only through the argument from accidents. This argument rests on the premise that bodies are never devoid of accidents—a premise they could establish only through spatial states, namely conjunction, separation, motion