But our concern here is to refute the specious arguments of those who deny His knowledge, not to present the proofs of those who affirm it.

Abū al-Barakāt’s counterargument based on His acts is excellent: if creating creatures entails neither weariness nor imperfection for Him, then His knowledge of them is all the more deserving of being free of either.

This shows that the claim of the Jews, who described Him as becoming weary when He created the heavens and the earth in six days and then resting afterward, is closer to reason than the claim of Aristotle and his followers, who say: “If He knew these things, He would become weary.” This counterargument, however, rests on His being the efficient cause of the world, whether He is said to bring it into existence by His will or to necessitate its existence by His very essence, without will.

That He is the origin of the world is something upon which nations, earlier and later, have agreed. The leading followers of the Peripatetics, such as Ibn Sīnā and others like him, agreed with them on this.

As for Aristotle, his words affirm only that He is a final cause, meaning that the celestial sphere moves in order to resemble Him; they do not affirm that He brings the world into existence. Although this represents the utmost ignorance and unbelief, his account of His knowledge rests on this basis. His account of knowledge can nevertheless be refuted in several ways, even if this false premise is provisionally granted.

For the actual implication of the position of Aristotle and his followers is that the Lord neither creates nor has knowledge. Yet the first words Allah revealed to His Messenger, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, were:

“Read in the name of your Lord who created—created man from a clinging substance. Read, and your Lord is the Most Generous, who taught by the pen—taught man what he did not know.” [al-‘Alaq: 1–5]