and nothing they have adduced provides any evidence whatsoever that any particular thing in the world is eternal. At most, they can demonstrate that activity as a kind has no beginning, that the agent has always acted, that the succession of events has no beginning, and similar propositions that do not establish the eternity of any particular thing in the world. This does not contradict any of the prophets’ texts; rather, it accords with them.

As for the mass-transmitted texts from the prophets stating that Allah created the heavens, the earth, and everything between them in six days, and that Allah is the Creator of everything—so that everything other than Him is created, coming into existence after not existing—no one can advance a rational proof contradicting this. This has been discussed at length elsewhere.

On this question of whether the world had a beginning, the philosophers’ strongest arguments—which the theologians were unable to answer—contain nothing whatsoever proving that anything in the world is eternal. Accordingly, the arguments people have advanced—that every effect has a beginning, coming into existence after not existing, and that everything other than Allah is an effect and therefore has a beginning—do not contradict this.

Rather, what contradicts this is the foundational doctrine of the Jahmiyyah and the Muʿtazilah, who said:

“Allah existed without speaking or doing anything. Indeed, speech and action were impossible for Him and were not within His power in pre-eternity. Then they became possible and within His power without anything new arising. Thus speech and action come into being without any cause whatsoever necessitating their occurrence.”

Then the leading proponents of this approach—Jahm and Abū al-Hudhayl—maintained that activity and all motion must come to an end.

Jahm went further, asserting that the entire world would cease to exist: Paradise