the necessary being is what necessitates contingent beings, and it also necessitates the collective configuration. This collective configuration is itself contingent and distinct from the necessary being. The necessary being is not part of the collective configuration, but is one of the individual members. The configuration is a relation and connection: the necessary being is not part of that relation and connection, but is one of the individual members related to one another. The relation and all the other individual members are distinct from it, and it necessitates everything distinct from itself.

As for the aggregate understood as the individual members, no part of it can be what necessitates every individual member. This would require that part to necessitate itself and be the agent of its own existence. This is necessarily impossible, by the agreement of all rational people. Indeed, it is among the most utterly impossible things, and knowledge of this is among the clearest and most evident truths. For this reason, no rational person has ever maintained it.

If the aggregate comprises all the individual members together with the configuration, it is even more impossible for one individual member to necessitate itself, all the other individual members, and the collective configuration. This is clear, and to Allah belong all praise and gratitude.

Know that the invalidity of such objections is evident to anyone with a sound natural disposition and sound reasoning. Such corrupt thoughts, which cast doubt on established truths