and all that lies between them are created, manufactured, intelligible, originated, or described by other such terms—while what he really wants those words to mean is that they are effects, even though in his scheme they are eternal, without beginning and everlasting.

As for the word “qadīm” (ancient), in the well-known language with which the prophets addressed us it simply refers to something that came before something else in time, whether or not it was preceded by non-existence. Allah, Most High, says,
“until it returns like the old, withered date-stalk” (Yā Sīn 36:39),
and He says,
“By Allah, you are indeed in your ancient misguidance” (Yūsuf 12:95).
Abraham, the Friend of Allah, said,
“Have you considered what you and your forefathers of old used to worship? They are enemies to me—except the Lord of the worlds” (al-Shuʿarāʾ 26:75).

For this reason the everlasting, pre-eternal being who has always existed and whose existence was never preceded by non-existence deserves the name qadīm more than anything else.

No one has the right to take the terms qadīm and mutaqaddim (prior) and apply them to something that merely coincides with another in time, claiming that it is prior to it only by virtue of causality, then say, “It is prior to and ahead of that other in this respect, and that effect is posterior to it in this respect,” and after that force the language of the prophets, their followers, and ordinary people into this technical usage—even supposing that usage were correct, let alone when it is false.