He said:

“Now that we have defined these things, let us demonstrate that bodies come into being. We say: Bodies did not precede motion and rest, both of which come into being; and whatever does not precede that which comes into being must itself come into being.”

He then presented this argument in full, as had his predecessors, such as Ibn Aqīl and others, and, before them, Abū al-Husayn al-Basrī and his peers, who are the leading exponents of this argument. We have already given Abū al-Husayn’s presentation of it, so there is no need to repeat it.

He said:

“If it is asked: ‘What do you say about someone who attains this knowledge merely by following others or by some other means? Does he know Allah and count as a believer?’

“The answer is: ‘Yes, but he is guilty of sin for neglecting the rational inquiry required of him.’”

[Ibn Taymiyyah’s comment]

I say: As for this argument—the argument from accidents—the objections people have raised against it and their condemnation of it are well known. As for the preceding argument, which reasons from the fact that human beings come into being, it is a sound argument, and one of those to which the Quran points and directs us.

The point here is that this man and others like him, who say that knowledge can be attained only through reason and denounce those who say that it can be attained through revelation, from among