and others like him, followed the doctrine of a group of heretical philosophers who affirmed five beginningless entities: the Necessary Existent, the soul, matter, time, and the void. They held that the world came into being because the soul became attached to matter, and that the Necessary Existent could not free it from matter until it had mingled with the world and tasted the evils within it.

He adopted this view because he maintained that the world had a beginning and was challenged to explain what caused it to come into being. He therefore posited a kind of motion that he called “spontaneous motion,” likening it to wind and sounds emitted involuntarily by a person. He placed the soul’s love of matter in this category. His ignorance in his heresy became apparent to people: whatever form this motion took, it came into being after not existing. Thus, one may ask what caused it to arise, just as one may ask what caused any other motion to arise. This ignorant claim did not enable him to escape the question.

The point is that many people of polytheism and misguidance may attribute the existence of some contingent beings, or the occurrence of certain events, to something other than Allah.

Everyone who holds this view is necessarily committed to something coming into being without a cause.

Yet despite their polytheism and the partial negation of divine lordship that their views entail, they do not affirm any partner alongside Allah who is equal to Him in His actions or His attributes.