than those who establish this on the grounds that bodies are never devoid of an accident from each genus of accidents, and that no kind of accident persists for two instants. Many Ash'arīs and those who agreed with them followed this method, which is the most circuitous and lengthy of these methods, and the weakest in its premises—if there is anything sound in these methods at all.

The reply to Abd al-Jabbār in defence of al-Ash'arī is therefore as follows:

He argued from the fact that human beings have a beginning—an observable, known fact that no rational person disputes. This spared him the need to argue from the claim that all bodies have a beginning. Once it is established that human beings have a Maker, all His attributes, including knowledge, power, and so forth, are established. It then becomes possible to know through revelation that the heavens and the earth have a beginning, without needing an argument establishing that all bodies have a beginning. Nevertheless, the method al-Ash'arī set out, taken in its entirety, does establish this.

Thus, Abd al-Jabbār may be told:

If your method is sound, al-Ash'arī employed it at the end of his argument; if it is unsound, he cannot be blamed for abandoning it. Indeed, when followers of the early Muslims and the leading scholars censured aspects of his teaching, what they censured was his agreement with you in this method and others like it. The very agreement with you that you demand of him is what the early Muslims and the leading scholars condemn in him, just as they condemn it in you.