either because the same word has different meanings in different terminologies, or because a shared meaning encompasses different kinds. Once the intended meaning is explained and the ambiguous elements are distinguished, truth becomes clear from falsehood, and the intended meaning from what is not intended.
If someone says:
“We know necessarily that whatever does not precede temporal events, or is free of them, is itself temporally originated,”
then he has spoken truly according to what he understands by this wording; but that is not the point in dispute.
The same applies to the word qadīm (ancient). If someone says, “The Quran is ancient,” meaning that it was revealed more than seven hundred years ago—which is the linguistic meaning of “ancient”—or that it was written in the Preserved Tablet before its revelation, then this is not disputed.
Likewise, if he says, “Uncreated,” meaning that it is not fabricated, then this has never been disputed by any Muslim or by adherents of other religions who believe in the messengers.
[Discussion of their statement: Whatever does not precede temporal events is itself temporally originated]
When someone says, “Whatever does not precede temporal events is itself temporally originated,” this has two meanings. The first is that it does not precede a particular temporal event, particular temporal events, a finite set of temporal events, or temporal events known to have a beginning. If “temporal events” is taken to mean anything that has a beginning, whether one event or many, then it is evident that whatever does not precede this, or is never free of it, cannot exist before it. Rather, it can exist only alongside it or after it, and is therefore temporally originated.
No two rational people who understand what they are saying would dispute this.
But this is not the point in dispute. Rather, the point in dispute is this:
Is that which has never been free of successive temporal events, which have always occurred in succession, itself temporally originated? This depends on whether such a thing can exist at all. Can temporal events occur continuously, one after another, without a beginning