This is perfectly clear if one grasps the conclusion of his premises, namely his statement:

“Thus, the existence of the first effect is identical with the First’s apprehension of it.”

Would anyone who understands what he is saying make such a claim, while also saying that Allah has brought something into being? He would thereby be saying that the very thing Allah has brought into being—made, fashioned, created, and distinct from Him—is His very knowledge.

The consistent implication of this is that the heavens and the earth are His very knowledge of the heavens and the earth, and that a human being is Allah’s knowledge of that human being. A human being is born after having been in his mother’s womb; thus, Allah’s knowledge would be born after having been in his mother’s womb. Have the Christians ever made a false claim like this?!

[The Sixteenth Argument]

His statement:

“Thus, the existence of the first effect is identical with the First’s apprehension of it, without any need for a newly arising form to inhere in the essence of the First—exalted is He above that.”

He may be answered as follows: Not everyone says that He needs a newly arising form. Rather, those who say that He knows things before they occur, and that His knowledge of them after they come into existence is that same prior knowledge, do not say that there will be any newly arising form. Thus, what you have mentioned does not follow from their position.

If you say, “Their position is weak, because knowing that something will occur is not the same as knowing that it has occurred,”