and they cite as evidence the expression “He is larger-bodied,” used when someone is thicker and extends farther in the various directions, arguing that this implies that they took the greater number of parts into account.

The reply is as follows:

As for the “first premise”—that speakers of the language call everything possessing a magnitude, such that it can be larger or smaller than something else, a body—this usage is entirely absent from the Arabic language. No one can report that the Arabs call the air between heaven and earth a body, nor do they call the human spirit a body. Rather, it is well known that they distinguish between body and spirit. Hence the Exalted says:

“When you see them, their bodies impress you.”

This means their physical bodies, not their inner spirits. Lexicographers have stated that, in their usage, jism (body) means jasad (physical body).

It is also well established in the language that this word conveys thickness and density. Thus, they do not call independently existing things bodies when they are subtle, such as air and the human spirit, even though these possess a magnitude by which some may be larger than others. Such things are nevertheless not called bodies in the language. Nor, when one exceeds another in size, do they say, “This is larger-bodied than that.” They do not say, “This spacious place is larger-bodied than that narrow place,” even though it is larger and—even according to those who hold that it is composed of parts—its parts outnumber those of the other. Thus, not everything that, in their view, is composed of parts is called a body. Nor does one find in their speech the expressions “He took his body,” or “He ascended with his body to heaven,” or that Allah takes