possibility is established; rather, it is said that it has existed thus from eternity, just as the eternal cause has existed from eternity, as they claim.

He said: “Let the reader of this book draw upon our presentation of their objection concerning the eternal will and our turning that objection back against them concerning the polar point and the direction of the celestial sphere’s motion. This makes clear that whoever does not accept that bodies began to exist cannot establish any proof that the First is not a body.”

[Ibn Taymiyya’s commentary]

Thus Abū Hāmid and others demonstrate the invalidity of the arguments they have presented to deny that the First is a body. They say that the only way to establish this is to prove that bodies began to exist. Al-Ashʿarī had already preceded them in demonstrating the invalidity of the arguments advanced by the Muʿtazila to prove that bodies began to exist.