This is clear once it is conceived and is known self-evidently.

The term “aggregate,” however, is ambiguous: it may mean the individual constituents taken together, their aggregation, or both. It is known that no individual constituent can be the cause of every individual constituent. This is the point to be established.

As for aggregation, if it is assumed to be distinct from the individual constituents, one of them can be the cause of that aggregation, which is distinct from that constituent and the others. If both the individual constituents and their aggregation are intended, then the aggregation is one of the aggregate’s constituent parts. One member of that aggregate would thus be the cause of all its remaining parts, and this is possible. The Necessary Existent—glorified and exalted is He—is the Originator of all other existents and of their aggregation with Him, if that aggregation is assumed to be distinct from the individual constituents. Yet that aggregation itself is included among all other existents.

Thus, when it is said, “He is the Originator of all other existents,” this includes everything that exists besides Him, both entities and their accidents. It also includes the aggregation arising between Him and them—that is, the collective configuration—if it is assumed to exist. For that aggregation is something distinct from the Existent who is necessary in Himself. It therefore falls among all existents other than Him and is one of the things He has made.

This is further clarified by the fact that, if aggregation is assumed to be something distinct from the individual constituents, it is something that comes into being as contingent existents come into being. Whenever a contingent existent comes into being, it coexists with the other contingent existents, and that coexistence comes into being with it. If everything other than Allah is assumed to have come into being, then the coexistence of originated things with Allah’s existence likewise comes into being. It is like the coexistence of created beings with their Creator. All rational people agree that this coexistence, and the like, can come into being. Indeed, they agree that relations can come into being