a small number of the created things we observe, such as human bodies. This is the height of ignorance, for there are created beings we have not seen, such as the angels and jinn, and even our own souls. What the Messenger, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, has conveyed need not resemble these, so how could it necessarily resemble what they have observed? This concerns the word “body” from the standpoint of language. As for revelation, it is well known that none of the prophets, the Companions, the Successors, or the early generations of the Muslim community is reported to have said that Allah is a body or that Allah is not a body. Rather, both affirming and denying this are innovations in religion.
As for rational inquiry, they disagree about those things they agree to call bodies, such as the heavens, the earth, wind, water, and similar things that can be pointed to, lie in a particular direction, and occupy space. They dispute whether such things are composed of indivisible atoms, of matter and form, or of neither. Most rational thinkers hold the third view. Each of the first two views is held by a group of speculative thinkers: the first is widespread among speculative theologians, and the second among philosophers. Yet both groups’ positions are false, and those who hold the third view know through reason that they are false.
That being so, if someone says: “I affirm that He is above the Throne, that hands are raised to Him, and the like; yet not everything of this kind is composed of individual parts