The division we have set out applies to every position, although every false position has its own specific proofs demonstrating its falsity.

[The Falsity of the Mu‘tazilites’ and Ash‘arites’ Position on the Indivisible Atom]

Likewise, the speculative theologians who affirm the indivisible atom (1), or who hold that motion and rest are two positive realities—as do the majority of the Mu‘tazilites, Ash‘arites, and others—say that the world has never been devoid of motion and rest or of combination and separation (2). All these are temporally originated, and thus the world necessarily entails temporal events.

This is discussed at length in its proper place. There is disagreement about it among speculative thinkers; its premises involve lengthy discussion and dispute, and some of them may not even be established. We shall therefore not expound it here, since we have no need of it and it is part of blameworthy speculative theology.

Many speculative thinkers hold that rest is a privation. We maintain (3) that affirming the indivisible atom is false and that bodies are composed neither of indivisible atoms (4) nor of prime matter and form. Rather, a body is one in itself. As for whether all bodies admit division or only some of them do, this is not the place to discuss it at length. Even assuming that what admits division can in fact be divided (5), it does not follow that it must remain divisible without end; rather, it admits division only up to a limit (6). Beyond that point, the body becomes so small that it cannot undergo actual division, but is instead transformed into another body, as occurs with particles of water when they become very small (7): they are transformed into air, even though one of the two sides of such a particle is distinct from