has come into existence, it is not a self-evident premise, and scholars have disagreed over it. Plato allowed that something could be both contingent and eternal, whereas Aristotle denied this. This is a difficult question whose true nature has become clear only to those versed in the art of demonstration. These are the scholars whom Allah has distinguished with knowledge, joining their testimony in the Noble Book to His own testimony and that of His angels.”

I say:

As for his claim that the scholars mentioned in the Quran are his fellow philosophers—the logicians and followers of the Greeks—this is false. We know with certainty from the religion of Islam that those whom Allah praised for affirming His oneness are not the polytheists who worship the stars and idols and espouse magic, nor those who hold that the celestial spheres are eternal, nor those whose position entails that events came into existence by themselves, without an agent bringing them about.

We also know with certainty that knowledge of Allah’s oneness does not depend upon the distinctive doctrines they have introduced into logic concerning definition and syllogism, on which most people disagree with them. These include their distinction between essential attributes and accidental attributes inseparable from an essence, and their distinction between the reality of existing individual things—which is their essence—and existence itself, which is the existing thing, and similar notions.

This is what has been stated by someone who disputes with these two, for he supports the view of