And the term “enumeration” does not distinguish between the two. If enumeration encompasses the infinite as a whole, then the verse provides no proof for their argument. If it is said instead that He has enumerated the future, meaning one set after another, the verse still provides no proof, since the same can be said of the past.
Whether knowledge encompasses the infinite is a difficult question on either view. The purpose here is not to settle that question, but to show that Allah did not intend a verse such as this to negate His having always spoken.
[The Different Meanings of the World’s Coming into Being among Speculative Thinkers]
A similar case is the question: Has the world come into being, or not? In technical usage, “the world” means everything other than Allah. This expression has an ordinary, familiar meaning among people generally, whether followers of religious traditions or others. It also has a meaning in the terminology of speculative theologians, while the heretics have introduced a third meaning.
[The First Meaning]
What people understand from this statement is that everything other than Allah is created, has come into being, and exists after not having existed; and that Allah alone is eternal and beginningless. There is no beginningless thing alongside Him that preceded Him. Rather, everything other than Him exists after not having existed. He alone possesses beginningless eternity, just as creation, origination, divinity, and lordship belong exclusively to Him. Everything other than Him has been brought into being and created, is subject to His lordship, and is His servant.
This is the meaning known from the prophets and their followers among Muslims, Jews, and Christians. It is also the view of most people outside these religious traditions, including philosophers and others.
[The Second Meaning]
The second meaning is to say that Allah had always neither done anything nor spoken by His will, and then events came into being without any cause necessitating this.
For example, it is said that His having always spoken by His will or acted by His will—indeed, even His having always been capable—is impossible, and that a beginningless succession of events cannot exist. This is the meaning intended by the speculative theologians of the Jahmiyyah