(Explanation of the Disagreement Between the Theologians and the Philosophers on the Reality of the Body) And if you place each of the two substances and a third *** in the middle, which is the middle barrier, then for its sake
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The Shaykh : The author (may Allah have mercy on him) said:
"And if you place each of the two substances and a third *** in the middle, which is the middle barrier"
"Then for its sake they separate and do not meet *** until it is removed, then they meet"
This is in refutation of the theologians who affirmed the indivisible atom, and the philosophers affirmed composition from matter and form. The wonder is that each of these groups refuted the other and said that the indivisible atom is not possible, but is only something in the imagination. If we were to affirm it, it would follow that the small atom, which has no end to its parts, would be equal to what? To the large mountain, because each of them ends in nothing. This is an impossible thing, a denial of the senses. Therefore, Allah sufficed the believers in fighting by some of these refuting some of those. And those theologians also refuted these philosophers by saying that matter is the form, and that it is not possible for matter to exist without form. Matter is the essence of the thing; it must be that the matter is in a specific form, and one of them cannot be separated from the other.
"And if you place each of the two substances and a third *** in the middle, which is the middle barrier"
"Then for its sake they separate and do not meet *** until it is removed, then they meet"
This is in refutation of the theologians who affirmed the indivisible atom, and the philosophers affirmed composition from matter and form. The wonder is that each of these groups refuted the other and said that the indivisible atom is not possible, but is only something in the imagination. If we were to affirm it, it would follow that the small atom, which has no end to its parts, would be equal to what? To the large mountain, because each of them ends in nothing. This is an impossible thing, a denial of the senses. Therefore, Allah sufficed the believers in fighting by some of these refuting some of those. And those theologians also refuted these philosophers by saying that matter is the form, and that it is not possible for matter to exist without form. Matter is the essence of the thing; it must be that the matter is in a specific form, and one of them cannot be separated from the other.