other bodies, for the Throne too is created, as the scriptural texts affirm and the Muslims unanimously agree. The leading ancient philosophers—as their views have been reported—held positions consistent with this. They did not maintain that the world is eternal, for that position has no evidence whatsoever and is utterly unsound.

In essence, it means that the Maker made nothing and that events occur without anyone bringing them about. Indeed, it amounts to saying that this world necessarily exists and has no creator.

Aristotle merely posited for it a final cause which the celestial sphere seeks to imitate. His argument was that, since the sphere’s motion is voluntary in his view, it must have an end. He said:

“The First Cause moves the celestial sphere as the beloved moves the lover.”

Yet the object of longing actually has no intention, knowledge, or action in moving the lover. Rather, the lover moves towards the beloved out of love. How much more so, then, when their actual position is that it moves to imitate Him, just as someone following an imam in prayer moves to imitate his imam? Thus they say that the celestial sphere moves to imitate the First Cause.

Elsewhere, we have demonstrated the unsoundness of Aristotle’s position and related the statements his followers attribute to him, explaining their flaws.

The point here is for rational people to recognize that it contradicts clear reason and is not part of the religion of the Muslims, just as opposition to Allah’s Book, the Sunnah of His Messenger, or the consensus of the earliest Muslims is not part of their religion. Their authentic religion contains nothing that conflicts with sound transmitted evidence, nothing that conflicts with clear reason, and nothing that contradicts both sound transmitted evidence and clear reason.