Tahafut_al-Tahafut-transl-Engl-van-den-Bergh

degree of consent they reach; we shall then investigate the contradictions
of the philosophers which he mentions, and his methods of opposing them
on this problem.
The first kind of division which, according to Ghazali, the philosophers
deny of the First Principle, is the quantitative division, either in supposition
or in reality. Everyone who believes that the First Principle is not a body,
whether he believes that a body is composed of atoms or not, agrees
about this. The proof of this is that the First Principle is not a body, and its
discussion will follow.
The second kind is the qualitative division, like the division of body into
matter and form, and this according to the doctrine of those, namely, the
philosophers, who believe that body is composed of matter and form and
this is not the place to discuss the truth of either of these theories. This
division also is denied of the First Principle by everyone who believes that
the First Principle is not body. As to the denial of the corporeality of the
First Principle in so far as it is essentially a necessary existent, the
discussion of this will follow later, when we give a complete account of the
whole argument used in this matter. For as to Ghazali’s words that the
necessary existent does not need another, i. e. it does not consist of
anything else, but that body consists of form and matter and neither of
them are necessary existents, for form cannot dispense with matter and
matter cannot dispense with form-there is here a problem; for according to
the philosophers the body of the heavens is not composed of matter and
form, but is simple, and it has sometimes been thought that it is a
necessary existent by its own essence; but this problem will be treated
later, and I do not know of any philosopher who has believed that the body
of the heavens is composed of matter and form, with the sole exception of
Avicenna. We have already spoken on this question in another place, and
shall discuss it still later on.
The third kind is the denial of the plurality of attributes in the necessary
existent, for if these attributes were of a necessary existence, the
necessary existent would be more than one, since the essence also is a
necessary existent. And if the attributes were caused by- the essence,
they could not be necessary existents, and attributes of the necessary
existent would not be necessary existents, otherwise the term ‘necessary
existent’ would comprise the necessary existent and that which is not a
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