Their own leading scholars have admitted this. Even al-Āmidī, in [his book] Abkār al-Afkār (1), acknowledged (2) that their only evidence for bodies being alike is that atoms are alike, while they have no evidence that atoms are alike. In al-Ibāna, al-Ash'arī counted this among the Mu'tazilī doctrines that he refuted (3).

Whether or not bodies are in fact alike, whoever says that He is a body—as did Hishām [ibn al-Hakam] (4) and Ibn Karrām—does not (5) maintain that all bodies are alike. For they say that the reality of Allah Most High is unlike any (6) other reality. Thus, they too deny likening Allah to created beings. If they are characterized [as such] (7) because the one applying the label believes that this necessarily follows from their position, then every group could characterize the other as Mushabbiha because it believes that this necessarily follows from the other’s position.

The Mu'tazila and the Shi'a agree with them [in holding] that the most distinctive attribute of the Lord (8) is beginninglessness, and that whatever shares beginninglessness with Him is like Him. Thus, if we affirm (9) a beginningless attribute, likening necessarily follows, and everyone who affirms a beginningless attribute is a Mushabbih. On this basis, they call everyone who affirms the attributes a Mushabbih.