They said: Anaximenes expressed a view similar to that of these two, except that one may say: “The Creator moves with a motion beyond these motions.”

[Ibn Malkā’s Discussion]

I say: Abū al-Barakāt likewise reported both views in al-Muʿtabar as the views of others—indeed, of those who held that the world is eternal. He said:

“Those who affirm that the world had a beginning said to the proponents of its eternity: ‘If Allah has always been bountiful and a Creator, eternal without beginning, how did the temporal events in the world come into being? From the Eternal or from another? If you say that He created them and that their existence proceeded from Him, then you have affirmed that the Eternal created what came into being in time, and willed to create it after not having willed to do so. If you say that another brought about these temporal events, then you have ascribed partners after going to such lengths to affirm the oneness of the One whose existence is intrinsically necessary.’”

He said:

“The proponents of eternity replied: ‘Rather, the first, one, eternal Creator is the Creator of all created things, whether eternal or newly originated—He alone, with no partner in