is dependent on them in some respect. This is false.

The second is that those things are necessary consequences of His will, which is inseparable from Him, or of something else among the necessary consequences of necessary consequences. On this understanding, they are created things, dependent on Him in every respect.

Thus, if it is said, “Without those things, He would not exist,” the meaning is that supposing their absence entails the absence of that which necessarily entails them. This, however, is an impossible supposition.

[The Eleventh Argument]

His statement:

“And He would have a state that follows necessarily not from His essence but from something else. Something else would therefore exert an influence upon Him. The preceding considerations invalidate this.”

The response is: If that state is assumed to arise anew after the event, it does not follow necessarily from itself; for knowledge, or any other attribute that subsists in Him, follows necessarily from His essence, not from anything else. However, according to those who hold this view, it may be said that its following necessarily from Him occurs when He brings those created things into being.

What objection is there to this? It does not contradict His necessary existence in Himself. This would hold even if that other thing were created by someone other than Him; how much more so when it is created by Him? Both necessarily follow from Him: what subsists in Him and what exists apart from Him. Nothing other than Him exerts an influence upon Him, since He Himself necessitates them all.

There is no doubt that people call upon Allah and He answers them; they obey Him and He is pleased with them; they disobey Him and He is angry with them; and He rejoices at the repentance of the repentant, as the scriptural texts indicate.