And this is far graver than the former’s assertion: “They came into being through an agent endowed with power and choice, without any newly arising cause.” The latter’s fundamental claim is that a complete cause is contemporaneous with its effect. Thus, they held that the celestial sphere, which they regard as eternal and beginningless, is contemporaneous with its cause. They set this against the theologians’ assertion: “Rather, the effect of a fully effective agent comes after it.”

The correct position is that the effect of a fully effective agent follows it immediately: it neither coincides with it nor comes after a lapse of time. As Allah Most High says:

“His command, when He wills a thing, is only to say to it, ‘Be,’ and it is.”

Hence we say: “I broke it, so it broke; I cut it, so it was cut; I divorced the woman, so she became divorced; I emancipated the slave, so he became free.”

It follows that everything other than the Lord Most High came into being, because whatever He brings into being exists only after His bringing it into being, not simultaneously with it.

If they say that what is brought into being exists simultaneously with the act of bringing it into being, they must accept that nothing in the world comes into being, contrary to what is observed. For if the First is a complete cause, a complete cause is contemporaneous with its effect, and everything equal to it is its effect, then all would be eternal.

They must also accept that, whenever anything comes into being, infinitely many causes become complete at the moment it comes into being—all in a single instant. This is impossible according to clear reason and the agreement of all rational people.