…from him; for that lack makes the envier loathe the possibility that the person he envies might catch up with him or even surpass him.

Likewise, every form of flagrant sin—murder, fornication, and the rest of the abominations—finds its origin in the soul’s felt need: the urge for satisfaction through killing or the craving for pleasure through illicit intercourse. If a person could achieve his goal without killing, or taste the desired pleasure without fornication, he would not commit those acts. That need itself arises from privation. Upon reflection one sees that any existing evil, whether traced to a privation or to something present, must be an imperfect existence. Sometimes it is ascribed to the absence of a complete cause or the loss of a required condition; at other times it is linked to something present, labelled an incomplete cause or an inadequate recipient. The ultimate reason, then, is either the absence of a condition or the presence of an impediment—and an impediment prevents only because the underlying cause is weak.

All that I have explained is plain, save for one subtle issue that becomes clear with careful thought, and it has two facets:

1. What exists can never be wholly caused by sheer non-existence.
2. What exists can never be the direct cause of absolute non-existence.

This is self-evident: the things that exist can proceed only from a real, existent source. Hence sound innate knowledge affirms that every artefact must have an artisan, as the Exalted says: “Were they created out of nothing, or are they the creators?” (Surah al-Tur, 52:35)—that is, were they brought into being without a creator who fashioned them, or did they create themselves?

Some theologians have attempted to demonstrate this point by analogy and have constructed …