the hypocrites among the philosophizers, the Qarmatians, and other such esotericists. For when they establish as foundations of religion matters that are self-evidently not among its foundations, this necessarily entails altering and changing the religion. Hence, practitioners of this discipline have added to religion and subtracted from it, in both knowledge and practice.

That being so, inquiry into this question is not something upon which religion rests. Rather, it is a question of natural philosophy, like other discussions of the general properties of bodies. Moreover, the imams of Islam have unanimously condemned those who base their religion on discussions of substances and accidents.

Furthermore, those who claimed that faith in Allah and the Last Day depends upon the existence of the indivisible atom themselves doubted it and suspended judgment toward the end of their lives. Such was the case with the leading figure among the later Muʿtazilites, Abū al-Husayn al-Basrī, and the leading figure among the later