the hungry long for food, the thirsty for drink, those suffering from cold for clothing, and those exposed to the sun for shade.

Moreover, despite all this, you have offered no sound proof for it. We shall, however, address you on the basis of what you yourselves have acknowledged.

It may be said:

If it is as you describe, then it is neither a cause of the world, nor its principle, nor its maker, nor something that produces any effect upon it. Your claim that it is the Cause of causes and the First Principle is therefore invalid.

As for your statement, “It is a natural cause of the world and brings it to completion,” at most this means that the world needs it insofar as it longs for it. The object of longing need not be the creator or maker of that which longs for it, nor need it produce any effect upon it, as you yourselves have acknowledged and as every rational person knows.

For being a final cause does not entail being an efficient cause, especially when its causality consists merely in the celestial sphere’s desire to resemble it. Besides denying the existence of the Necessary Existent who created the world, this also involves the contradictions in your position that have already become clear.

We shall explain, Allah willing, their distinction between the First Cause and the eternal world, based on the latter’s being a body and on the principle that no body can possess an infinite power, together with what they have said on this subject.

[The Second Ground]

It may be said:

This statement of yours also invalidates your argument for the eternity of the world. For if it produces an effect upon the world, and is its cause, principle, and mover, only insofar as it is beloved, arouses longing, and is an object of love, then the world could have come into existence after it. For that which longs for an object may come into existence after that object, and the object