the beginninglessness of His activity as a kind, not the beginninglessness of any particular thing He has made. Proofs have established that everything other than Him is created, coming into existence after not having existed, even if it is said that He has always spoken and acted.

On this supposition, He would know none of His creatures, since they all came into being, and they know nothing of things brought into being. It would follow that He does not know what He says or does, despite the evidence establishing that He speaks by His will and power. Indeed, this position necessarily implies that He has done nothing, for He acts only by His will, and He wills something only with knowledge of what He wills. If, therefore, it is supposed that He does not know the particular act or the particular thing produced, it follows that He has done nothing. It also follows that anyone who acts by his power and will would be more perfect than Him, because such a person acts with knowledge, power and will. By the clear judgment of reason, this is more perfect than doing nothing, or acting without power, will or knowledge.

Moreover, He could know the things He has made in a universal, beginningless, everlasting and unchanging way only if His creatures had been created in that manner. If that were so, it would follow that nothing in the world ever comes into being. For something to come into being after not existing requires its cause to become complete. The completion of that cause must itself have a newly arising cause, which completes its own complete cause, until the chain leads back to Him, exalted is He. Thus, that which completes the complete cause of events must itself come into being. If it is supposed that He knows only what is beginningless and everlasting, it would be impossible for Him to bring anything into being