[Continuation of al-Ghazālī’s discussion in The Incoherence of the Philosophers]

Al-Ghazālī said:

“If it is said: ‘When we say that the world has a maker, we do not mean an agent who acts by choice and begins to act after previously not acting, as we observe among various kinds of agents, such as the tailor, the weaver, and the builder. Rather, we mean the cause of the world, which we call the First Principle, meaning that its existence has no cause, while it is the cause of the existence of other things. If we call it a maker, it is in this sense.

The existence of a being whose existence has no cause can readily be established by conclusive proof. For we say:

The world exists, and whatever exists either has a cause or has no cause. If it has a cause, does that cause itself have a cause, or does it have no cause?

The same question applies to the cause of that cause. Either the series continues without end—which is impossible—or it ultimately terminates in a first cause whose existence has no cause, and this we call the First Principle.