Anyone with knowledge of what the Messenger brought (1) knows that this constitutes one of the gravest denials of the Messenger. He also knows that these people are further from following the Messenger of Allah—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—than the unbelievers among the Jews and Christians. This has been discussed at length elsewhere. The purpose here is to discuss the broad principles by which one may understand what this man has indicated concerning the Muslims’ doctrines and their disagreements.

Once the disagreement among speculative thinkers concerning the true nature of a body is understood, there can be no doubt that Allah—exalted is He—is not composed of discrete parts, nor of matter and form. Exalted is He; He admits neither division nor separation (2), nor was He dispersed and then brought together. Rather, exalted is He, He is One, the Self-Sufficient: “He neither begets nor is born, and none is comparable to Him.”

Thus, all these intelligible meanings of composition are inapplicable to Allah Most High. The philosophers and those who agree with them, however, go further and say: (3) If He is described by attributes, then He is composite; and if He possesses a reality that is not sheer existence, then He is composite.

The Muslims who affirm the attributes reply: The dispute does not concern the word “composite,” for this word properly denotes something put together by another. It is well known that no rational person says (4) that Allah Most High is composite in this sense.

The word “composite” may also be applied to something whose parts were separate and then brought together—either through a combining