mentioned earlier—

“Those who hold that the world came into being said: There is no need for this contrivance. In debate, they called it a ‘contrivance’ to disparage it and portray it as foolish. Rather, we say that the Originator and Restorer created the world and brought it into being through an eternal, beginningless will, by which He willed in pre-eternity to bring the world into being, until He did so.”

He also said:

“It was said in response to them: That principle does not change and is specified in pre-eternity only through an intelligible object that makes it an object of intention in eternal knowledge, in conjunction with the eternal will. He willed it during the period of nonexistence preceding the world’s coming into being—a period with no beginning. Whatever cannot be understood or conceived cannot be known; and whatever cannot be known is known by no knower—not because Allah is unable to know it, but because it is inherently beyond what is possible.

“Then what do they say concerning the world’s coming into being through Allah’s volition and will, by which He answers the supplicant’s prayer, treats the doer of good well and the evildoer ill, accepts the repentance of the repentant, and forgives those who seek forgiveness? Does this proceed from Him or not? If they say that it does not, they thereby invalidate