many of the leading speculative theologians say, “Allah, exalted is He, is a body.” If one of these theologians holds that a body is composed of indivisible parts or of matter and form, he may accordingly say that He is composite in each of these respects.
The majority of Muslims regard this view as false. Yet most rational people deny such composition even in created things, so they deny it of the Creator all the more emphatically.
Those who maintain that a created object which can be pointed to has this kind of composition need a rational proof demonstrating that anything of this kind is impossible for the Lord. For their opponents, who affirm the sort of meaning that they have termed “composition,” say, “They have no proof for denying it. On the contrary, the premises they accepted from us—namely, affirming this kind of composition in the observable realm—indicate that it also obtains in the unseen, just as in analogous cases where the observable is used as evidence for the unseen.”
The two groups have rational, terminological, and linguistic disputes over this issue, which have been discussed at length elsewhere.
The majority of rational people, together with the early generations and the imams, hold that both groups are mistaken. That the Lord is exalted far above this has been established by reason as well as revelation, as has been shown without resorting to fallacious arguments.
But if division or composition is said to mean that one thing pertaining to Him is distinct from another—such as His knowledge being distinct from His power, His essence from His attributes, or what is seen of Him from what is not seen—this is like what the early generations said regarding the words of the Exalted:
“Vision does not perceive Him.”
[Surah al-Anām: 103]
They said, “It does not encompass Him.”
Ibn Abbās, may Allah be pleased with him, was asked, “Does Allah, exalted is He, not say, ‘Vision does not perceive Him’?” He replied, “Do you not see