Likewise, al-Qādī Abū Ya‘lā and others who affirm the divine attributes and His being above the world agree with them that all bodies are alike. However, they treat His being above the world as an attribute known through revelation, as in the earlier of al-Qādī Abū Ya‘lā’s two positions. Discussion of it thus follows the same approach as discussion of His Face. They may also say that what they affirm is not incompatible with corporeality, just as they say concerning the other attributes. Anyone who reflects rationally will find that what they deny stands on the same footing as what they affirm: there is no difference.

The arguments of all these groups rest on the premises that affirming the attributes necessarily entails ascribing corporeality to Allah, and that all bodies are alike. Those who affirm the attributes respond sometimes by rejecting the first premise, sometimes by rejecting the second, sometimes by rejecting both, and sometimes by asking for clarification of what is meant.

There is no doubt that their assertion that all bodies are alike is false, whether they define a body as something that can be pointed to, something that subsists in itself, something that exists, something composed of matter and form, or something similar. If, however, they define it as something composed of indivisible atoms and assume that these atoms are all alike, their conclusion depends on the validity of that account, on establishing the existence of indivisible atoms, and on establishing that they are all alike. Most rational thinkers disagree with them on these matters.

(The point here is that they apply the term “likening” to what they believe constitutes ascribing corporeality to Allah, on the premise that all bodies are alike. Those who affirm the attributes dispute this belief, just as the Rāfidah level the charge of hostility to Alī against