Zakariyyāʾ al-Rāzī's Opinion about the Atomic Component

The discussion of atom among Muslim thinkers from the first century to the sixth century of Hijri is one of the significant and effective theological theories in the Islamic world. This theory was first introduced by the Mu'tazili thinkers with a theological approach in the Islamic world and later the Ash'aris acknowledged it as well. According to this theory, the world is the result of polycentricity and scatteration of individual and small components. According to the historical evidence, the origin of the adaptation of this theory is not only from ancient Greece, but also from Hindi opinions such as: Sutrananika, Ibashika Buddhist groups, in Jain religion and the Nyaya school, and three major viewpoints have been proposed regarding the atom: the first viewpoint, which is the predominant attitude of the scholars including Mu'tazili and Ash'ari, is that indivisible component has no quantity and is place-oriented like a geometric point. In the second view, Mu'tazili Basri theologians believe that the body is made up of place-oriented components that have dimension and extension. In the third view, which is specific to Muhammad bin Zakariyyā, it is considered that the origin of all substances to be hylomorphic, and the first hylomorphism is the atom that includes the possibility of distortion and change in bodies and as a result the creation of the world. These three different views have similarities and differences.