separation, partition, or subdivision, even if it had not previously been separate and then brought together, as is said of bodies. For although He—glorified is He—created animals and plants, bringing them into being stage by stage, a human being’s hand, foot, and head were not separate and then joined together (1). Rather, He created these organs as an integrated whole, though they can be separated from one another.
It is therefore impossible to say that Allah, glorified and exalted is He, admits of separation, partition, or subdivision in this sense. These, then, are two meanings concerning which there is agreement. I know of no Muslim of any standing in Islam who has said otherwise.
If someone says, “What is meant by composition is that He is composed of indivisible atoms or of matter and form, and what is meant by division and partition is that He comprises these parts,” the majority of rational people reply that these created things which can be pointed to—such as the sun, the moon, the celestial spheres, air, fire, and earth—are not composed (2) in either of these two ways. How much more so, then, the Lord of the worlds!
For it is known by plain reason that, if the majority of rational people maintain that a created object which can be pointed to and which lies above another—as the sky is above the earth—is not composed of parts that cannot be further divided, namely the indivisible atoms affirmed by those who hold this view, nor of matter and form, then they have all the more reason to deny that the Lord of the worlds is composed in either of these ways.
As for those who say that these concrete entities which can be pointed to are composed in one or the other of these ways, many of them—such as the Mu'tazilites and Ash'arites—deny this composition of the Lord, exalted is He. However,