Is it true that Imam Ahmad said, "Whoever says that Allah is a body unlike other bodies has committed apostasy (kufr)"? And how does one respond to those who use this statement as proof for the Ash'ari school of thought?

Imam Ahmad is not reported to have said: "Whoever says: 'A body unlike bodies' has disbelieved." Rather, what is reported from him is the excommunication of whoever likens Allah to His creation. As for whoever anthropomorphizes or says "a body unlike bodies," this statement is attributed to Judge Abu Ya'la al-Farra', who mentioned that Imam Ahmad denounced anthropomorphism. The correct view is that the one who says "a body unlike bodies" is an innovator, not a disbeliever. Judge Abu Ya'la qualified the excommunication of the one who says it to someone who attributes to the body the reality of composition and locomotion. The word "body" has not been mentioned in the sacred law, and it is an ambiguous term that implies createdness, unlike the word "thing" which is permissible to use for Allah. The difference between them is that the word "thing" does not imply createdness, whereas "body" entails composition and structure, and this is an indication of createdness. The use of descriptive attributes [of Allah] is restricted to what is stated in the sacred text. The forbidden anthropomorphism is saying "a hand like hands," whereas "a hand not like our hands" has no prohibition in it; rather, it conforms to tanzih (transcendence).