he would be told:

(* This sense, which was intended to be denied by this expression, is established by sound transmitted evidence and clear rational proof, while you have provided no evidence for denying it. (1)

As for the expression itself, using it—whether in negation or affirmation—is an innovation. Neither the Book, the Sunnah, nor the words of any of the Muslim community’s early generations and leading authorities use the term “body” with respect to the attributes of Allah Most High, whether by way of negation or affirmation.

The same applies to the terms “substance,” “that which occupies space,” and similar expressions over whose affirmation and negation the practitioners of innovated speculative theology have disputed.

If he says:

“Anything that can be pointed to and seen, and toward which hands are raised, can only be a body composed of indivisible atoms (2), or of matter and form,”

he would be told:

“This is a matter of dispute. Most people of reason reject that claim, and you have offered no evidence for it. This is the furthest the negators’ reasoning reaches: the substance of their position is that anything in which attributes—such as speech, will, and actions—subsist, and anything visible to the eyes, can only be a body composed of indivisible atoms (3), or of matter and form. Whatever formulations they use ultimately come back to this.”

Those who affirm have adopted various approaches in refuting them. Some conceded to them that anything in which volitional matters—whether actions or otherwise—subsist must be a body, but disputed their claim concerning the attributes that subsist in it, none of which depends upon will or power.