Others disputed both claims, saying:
“Neither the one nor the other is a body.”
Still others conceded to them that it is a body but disputed their assertion that the Eternal is not a body.
The reality is that the term “body” is subject to both terminological and substantive disputes. Terminological disputes (1) carry no weight in matters of rational meaning. Substantive disputes include the disagreement over anything that can be physically pointed to: must it be composed of indivisible atoms (2), of matter and form, or is neither type of composition necessary?
Many speculative thinkers among the Mu'tazilites, the Ash'aris (3), and those who agreed with them held that it must be composed of indivisible atoms (4). Most of them then said that it is composed of a finite number of atoms, while some (5) speculative thinkers said that it is instead composed of an infinite number of atoms (6).
Many speculative philosophers held that it must be composed of matter and form. Some philosophers applied this to all bodies, such as Ibn—
(1) A reads: “and the disputes.”
(2) A reads: “separate.”
(3) “And the Asharis” is an addition in B.
(4) A reads: “separate.”
(5) “Some” is an addition in B.
(6) The view of the majority of the Mu'tazilites and Asharis concerning the indivisible atom was noted earlier (this work, 1:212). S. Pines discussed the speculative theologians’ doctrine of the indivisible atom in some detail in his book *Madhhab al-Dharra inda al-Muslimīn* (*The Doctrine of the Atom among Muslims*), translated by Muhammad Abd al-Hādī Abū Rīda (Cairo, 1946); see especially pp. 1–16. For the definition of the indivisible atom, see *Kashshāf Istilāhāt al-Funūn*, entry “al-juz” (part), and Abū al-Baqā’s *al-Kulliyyāt*, entry “al-jawhar” (substance). On the speculative theologians’ doctrine of the indivisible atom, see also Ibn Hazm, *al-Fisal*, 5:223–236; Ibn Tāhir, *Usūl al-Dīn*, pp. [0–9]5–36; al-Bāqillānī, *al-Tamhīd*, pp. [0–9]7–18; al-Shahrastānī, *Nihāyat al-Iqdām*, pp. 505–514; *Maqālāt al-Islāmiyyīn*, 2:4–18; al-Rāzī, *al-Arbaīn fī Usūl al-Dīn*, pp. 253–264 (Hyderabad, 1353); al-Rāzī, *al-Mabāhith al-Sharqiyya*, 2:11–38; and al-Ghazālī, *Maqāsid al-Falāsifa*, pp. 147–157, al-Maārif edition, 1961.