joined together and others separate. It is untenable to say that they are both joined together and separate, or that they are neither joined together nor separate, since this is plainly impossible. Thus, only one of the remaining alternatives can hold. Whichever alternative is assumed, it is rationally conceivable that the bodies could be otherwise; such a different state is therefore possible for them ن. They must consequently have a particularizer that assigns their particular state to them, for the reasons already given in the first way.

As for establishing the second premise—that everything requiring a particularizer is originated in time—the particularizer must be an agent acting by choice, and what it particularizes must be originated in time, as explained earlier in the first approach. He means the argument from contingency, which he presented first; what he said concerning it will be given below, if Allah Most High wills. Once it is established that the parts of the world, consisting of substances and bodies, are never devoid of what is originated in time, they too must be originated in time. Thus, if the parts of the world consisting of substances