and after it is identical, and that no action inheres in Him Himself,(1) is—rationally speaking—far more remote than saying that a motionless object whose repose is eternal(2) cannot move, for an eternal repose can never be annulled, even though it is merely an accident.(3) If sound reason were confronted with two alternatives—first, that He brings things into existence without there being within His Self any act whatsoever, and second, that He acts, such that His act is in His Self after He had previously refrained—the second would be nearer to every mind than the first; for the second is intelligible, whereas the first is not.
Because of this, the Dahriyya among the philosophers and the like prevailed over them,(4) for these theologians maintain that substances and bodies are originated, and the overall tenor of their words entails the origination of every existent—something they never intended, yet which inevitably follows from their position and is plainly false. The Dahriyya, for their part, claim that the heavens are eternal, and this, too, is undoubtedly false disbelief; nevertheless, each of the two camps counters the other with its own arguments.
(1) The term huwa ("he/it") is omitted in manuscript S.
(2) The original reading was qad ’umma ("it has spread"); this is a copyist’s error, and the correct reading is found in manuscripts S and T.
(3) The text enclosed in quotation marks is an addition in manuscripts S and T.
(4) al-falāsifa: the plural of falsafī (philosopher); discussed above on p. 272.
al-dahriyyah: those who assert that the world is eternal in origin and duration, without a creator, and therefore abandoned worship as useless, viewing ad-dahr (time) as purely what naturally occurs according to innate disposition.
Among philosophers such as Ibn Sīnā and his followers, the al-dahriyyah maintained that the succession and perpetuity of events is necessary, since an event without an efficient cause is impossible; hence it is impossible that the entire series of events be produced without cause, and if every event has a cause, then existence at large must be eternal, rendering the world eternal. This principle is the foundation of their doctrines.
See: al-Fasl (Ibn Ḥazm), 1:9–14; Nihāyat al-Iqdam (al-Shahrastānī), 123–124; Darʾ Taʿārud al-ʿAql wa-al-Naql (Ibn Taymiyya), 4:43, 8:131, 9:147–148; al-Kuliyyāt (Abū al-Baqāʾ), 2:332; Kashshāf Istiʿlāḥāt al-Funūn (al-Tihāhnuwī), 2:274–275.