and likewise knows that Allah has spoken the Quran and other speech, and knows that Allah is above the Throne, through the mass-transmitted reports from the Messenger indicating this, together with the corresponding innate truths upon which Allah created His servants.

When they tell him, “This entails that Allah is composed of discrete parts, and whatever is composed must have someone who composes it. It therefore follows that Allah is brought into existence, since a composite depends upon its parts, and its parts are other than itself. Whatever depends upon something other than itself cannot be self-sufficient and necessarily existent in itself”—they bewilder him and fill him with doubts, if they do not actually cause him to reject what the Messenger brought and renounce some of the faith he previously held. Yet his doubt and bewilderment themselves undermine his faith, religion, knowledge, and reason.

They should therefore be told:

As for the claim that the Lord, glorified and exalted is He, is a composite assembled by another, this is among the most obviously false claims. Its falsity is known by rational necessity. Whoever says this is among the most disbelieving and ignorant of people, and among those most fiercely at war with Allah. None of the well-known groups holds this view.

Likewise, if He is said to be assembled or composed—meaning that His parts were once separate and were then brought together, just as the components of compound foods, medicines, garments, and buildings are brought together—then whoever believes that Allah is composed in this sense is among the most disbelieving and misguided of people. No well-known group within the Muslim community has held this belief. Indeed, most rational people hold that the creatures of