what they impute to others. These premises are contradictory: no sound argument can conceivably be constructed from them. All are rejected by the great majority of rational people. They contain distortions of language and reason introduced through these fallacies and specious arguments, leaving a man bewildered. He finds it hard to set aside his reason and religion and abandon faith and the Quran, for all of these concur in affirming the divine attributes. Yet he also finds it hard to accept what they insist his position entails: that the Lord is composed of parts and resembles created beings. He knows that this, too, is false, and that the Lord, mighty and majestic, must be declared free of it. For He, glorified is He, is the One, the Self-Sufficient Master. “The One” excludes any likeness to Him, while “the Self-Sufficient Master” excludes His being susceptible to separation, division, or having parts—glorified and exalted is He—let alone His being something assembled and composed: put together and assembled from parts.

Thus they lead those they address to believe that the attributes with which the Lord has described Himself are conceivable only in a body like the human body. Indeed, they may state this explicitly, saying, “Speech can only proceed from a composite structure, such as the human mouth,” and making other such claims.

When “the deniers” tell them, “Whenever you say that He can be seen, it follows that He is composed and assembled, because whatever is seen must lie in some direction from the beholder; whatever lies in some direction from the beholder must be a body; and a body is assembled and composed of parts”; or say, “If the Lord has spoken the Quran or any other speech, this necessarily follows; and if He is above the Throne, this necessarily follows”—the Muslim acquainted with what the Messenger, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said knows that Allah will be seen in the Hereafter, on the basis of the mass-transmitted reports to that effect that have reached him from the Messenger, may Allah bless him and grant him peace.