The Kullābiyyah, however, said: Attributes do subsist in Him, but temporal occurrences do not. We do not call attributes accidents, because, in our view, an accident does not persist for two successive moments, whereas Allah’s attributes endure.

They also said: If temporal occurrences subsisted in Him, He would never be free of them, because whatever is receptive to something cannot be devoid of both that thing and its opposite. Whatever is never free of temporal occurrences is itself originated in time.

The majority who opposed both groups replied: As for their assertion that attributes do not subsist in Him because they are accidents, that an accident can subsist only in a body, and that He is not a body: calling whatever subsists in something else an “accident” is a newly introduced convention. Likewise, calling anything that can be pointed to a “body” is also a newly introduced convention. In Arabic, jism means the body—the badan or jasad—as several authorities on the language have stated, including al-Asmaʿī and Abū ʿAmr. Thus, the word jism is similar in meaning to jasad, referring to that which is thick and dense. The Arabs say, “This is jasīm (bulky),” and “This is ajsam (bulkier) than that,” meaning thicker than it. Allah Most High says:

“And has increased him abundantly in knowledge and stature.”

And He Most High says:

“When you see them, their bodies impress you, and when they speak, you listen to their words.”

The word “body” may denote thickness and density themselves, or it may denote that which is thick and dense. Similarly, speculative thinkers sometimes use “body” to mean magnitude, which they may call the “mathematical body.” At other times, they mean the thing possessing magnitude, which is the natural body. Magnitude abstracted from that which possesses it is like number abstracted from that which is counted, and this exists only