‘The Creator has always been creating, and the Doer has always been acting,’ such that the conclusion you stated would necessarily follow from my position.”

Another copy reads:

“I said only that the Doer has always been One who will act, and the Creator has always been One who will create, for action is an attribute of Allah. Allah has power to act, and nothing prevents Him from doing so.”

Bishr said, “I say that He brought things into existence through His power, so say whatever you wish.”

Abd al-Azīz said:

I said, “O Commander of the Faithful, Bishr has acknowledged that Allah existed when nothing else existed, and that He brought things into existence through His power after they had not existed.

“I said that He brought them into existence by His command and His speech, through His power. Thus, O Commander of the Faithful, the first thing Allah created must have been created either through words He spoke, through a will He willed, or through power He had over it. Whichever of these it was, it is established that there was a will, One who willed, and something willed; speech, One who spoke, and something addressed; and power, One possessing power, and something subject to that power. All of this preceded creation, and whatever preceded creation is no part of creation.

“Thus I have refuted Bishr’s position through the Book, the Sunnah, the Arabic language, reasoning, and rational evidence.” He then mentioned another argument.

The point here is that Abd al-Azīz argued by an exhaustive rational division, for Allah