And if that is so, and His state before bringing each event into being is the same as His state prior to that event, then nothing whatsoever can originate from Him: neither a recipient nor what it receives, neither a disposition nor a supply.

Although they affirm that He has always been acting, their position entails that He has never brought anything into being—indeed, that He has never done anything at all. Rather, events would have occurred without anyone bringing them into being. Their position is therefore demonstrably false.

Nothing in their position entails that anything in the world is eternal; thus, their assertion of its eternity is false. For this reason, the doctrine that the celestial spheres are eternal has not been transmitted from the great masters of philosophy. Rather, the first from whom it is recorded is Aristotle, followed by his adherents. As for the great masters among the ancients, what is transmitted from them is that the celestial spheres came into being. They therefore affirm that the form of the world came into being, although their statements concerning matter are inconsistent.

Thus, what is reliably transmitted from their leading figures concerning the world’s coming into being accords with what the Messengers—may Allah’s blessings be upon them—proclaimed. Writers on doctrines have also reported that several of their leading figures affirmed Allah’s attributes and affirmed that matters subject to His choice subsist in His essence. This is the position of those among the ancients and later thinkers who come closer to clear reason and authentic revelation, such as Abū al-Barakāt and others.

These thinkers did not agree with Aristotle and his followers, or with Ibn Sīnā and those like him, that