untie it. The difficulty arises as follows: if all things are within Allah’s knowledge before they come into existence, are they within His knowledge while they exist just as they were before they existed?

If we say that, while they exist, they are within Allah’s knowledge differently from how they were within His knowledge before they existed, it follows that eternal knowledge undergoes change, and that when they pass from nonexistence into existence, additional knowledge comes into being. This is impossible for eternal knowledge.

If we say that eternal knowledge of them is the same in both states, it is asked:

‘Are they in themselves—I mean temporally originated things before they exist—the same as they are when they have come into existence?’

The answer must be:

‘In themselves, they are not the same before they exist as they are when they have come into existence; otherwise, the nonexistent and the existent would be one and the same.’

Once the interlocutor concedes this, he is asked:

‘Is not true knowledge knowing what exists as it actually is?’