Others said:
“A body is that which subsists in itself. Everything that subsists in itself is a body, and every body subsists in itself and can be pointed to.”
They differed over whether bodies are alike, holding two well-known views.
With this understood, whoever says that He is a body, meaning that He is composed of parts, makes a false claim. The same applies if he means that He resembles any created being. Both revelation and reason establish that nothing is like Allah in any of His attributes. Whoever affirms that Allah has a likeness in any of His attributes is therefore in error, as is anyone who says that He is a body in this sense.
Likewise, whoever says that He is not a body, meaning that He will not be seen in the Hereafter; that He does not speak the Quran or any other speech; that knowledge, power, and other attributes do not subsist in Him; that hands are not raised to Him in supplication; that the Messenger, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, was not taken up to Him; that good words do not ascend to Him; and that the angels and the Spirit do not ascend to Him—such a person’s claim is false.
Similarly, anyone who denies what Allah and His Messenger have affirmed, saying that it amounts to attributing corporeality, makes a false denial, and his describing it as attributing corporeality is misleading. If he means that this is called a body in ordinary language, his claim is false. If he means that this entails being a body composed of indivisible atoms or of matter and form, or that it entails being a body and that all bodies are alike, he should be told:
“Most rational people disagree with you both that created bodies are alike and that they are composite. They do not say that air is like water