those who affirm it (1), He brings about only accidents and attributes (2), while the atoms themselves remain, though their arrangement changes. The question of transformation follows from this.
Those who affirm the indivisible atom say: No essential reality is transformed into another, nor does one genus turn into another. Rather, Allah, Mighty and Majestic, changes the arrangement of the atoms while they themselves remain. Most thinkers, however, maintain that some bodies are transformed into others, one genus into another, and one essential reality into another—just as the sperm-drop turns into a clot, the clot (into) (3) a lump of flesh, and the lump into bones; just as the clay from which (Allah) (4) created Adam turned into flesh, blood, and bones; and just as the material from which fruit is created turns into fruit (5), and so forth. This is the view of the jurists, physicians, and most people of reason.
The question of whether bodies are alike likewise follows from this. The former say: Bodies are composed of atoms, and these atoms are alike; therefore, bodies are alike. Most thinkers, however, say: Rather, bodies differ in their essential realities. The essential reality of earth is not that of fire, nor is the essential reality of fire that of air. These are rational questions whose full treatment belongs elsewhere. The purpose here is merely to explain the source of the disagreement concerning what the term “body” denotes.
All speculative thinkers agree (6)—as far as I know—that a body can be pointed to, although they differ over whether it is composed of discrete parts, of matter and form, or of neither.