and they say: “A body is composed of indivisible atoms (1), or of matter and form.”
Those who affirm the attributes replied: “Your position is refuted by your own affirmation of the Most Beautiful Names. Allah is Ever-Living, All-Knowing, and All-Powerful. If (2) it is possible to affirm One who is living, knowing, and powerful without being a body, then it is possible for Him to possess life, knowledge, and power without being a body. If it is not possible to affirm (3) this, then whatever answer you give concerning affirmation of the Names is the answer we give concerning affirmation of the attributes.”
Those who affirm the attributes, in turn, include some who affirm the attributes known through revelation just as they affirm those known through reason. This is the position of Ahl al-Sunnah in the specific sense—the adherents of hadith and those who agree with them—and it is (4) the position of the leading jurists and the leading theologians among those who affirm the attributes, such as Abū Muhammad ibn Kullāb, Abū al-'Abbās al-Qalānisī (5), and Abū al-Hasan
(1) A and B read: “separate.”
(2) A and B read: “and if.”
(3) The word “affirmation” is omitted from A and B.
(4) N and M read: “and this.”
(5) I found no biographical notice of him in the biographical works available to me. Ibn Asākir, however, mentioned him in Tabyīn Kadhib al-Muftarī, p. [0–9] 98, stating: “Abū al-Abbās Ahmad ibn Abd al-Rahmān ibn Khālid al-Qalānisī al-Rāzī was a contemporary of Abū al-Hasan al-Asharī—may Allah have mercy on him—not one of his disciples, as al-Ahwāzī claimed. He was among the great and reliable scholars, and his doctrine regarding affirmation accorded with his—that is, al-Asharī’s—doctrine.” Shaykh Muhammad Zāhid al-Kawtharī commented that al-Qalānisī preceded al-Asharī. For reports concerning al-Qalānisī and his views, see al-Farq bayna al-Firaq, pp. [0–9] 0, 96, 213, 221; Usūl al-Dīn by Ibn Tāhir, pp. [0–9] 0, 45, 67, 254; al-Milal wa-al-Nihal, 1/85; Tabaqāt al-Shāfiiyya, 2/300; al-Irshād by al-Juwaynī, p. [0–9] 99; Ali Sāmī al-Nashshār, Nashat al-Fikr al-Falsafī fī al-Islām, pp. [0–9] 57–165, 2nd ed., al-Maārif Press, Alexandria, 1962; and Jalāl Muhammad Abd al-Hamīd Mūsā, Nashat al-Ashariyya wa-Tatawwuruhā, pp. [0–9] 8–66, Dār al-Kitāb al-Lubnānī, Beirut, 1395/1975.