and forever, and the existence of created things is possible. A thing whose existence is possible cannot come to exist rather than remain nonexistent without a determining factor. When the complete determining factor is present, its existence becomes necessary. For if it were not necessary, the thing would still admit of both existence and nonexistence, remaining merely possible as before; neither alternative could prevail without a complete determining factor.

It is thus clear that the mere presence of power that makes the existence of created things possible does not bring a created thing into existence. Rather, something else that the Lord does is indispensable.

Abd al-Azīz said:

“This act is an attribute of Allah, not one of the created things separate from Him. Allah has power to perform it, and nothing prevents Him from doing so.”

As for someone who says, “That act did not exist and then came to exist through power, and it is an attribute,” he asks about the cause of its coming into existence, just as he asks about the cause of the coming into existence of the thing created through it.

Abd al-Azīz offers several answers to this. One is the composite response, which is to say:

“An infinite succession of effects coming into existence is either possible or impossible. If it is possible, there is nothing objectionable in accepting it. If it is impossible, then I am not bound to accept it. The invalidity of an infinite succession does not entail the invalidity of the act without which a created thing cannot exist. For we know that a separate effect cannot exist without an act, and that a created thing cannot exist without an act of creation, before knowing whether an infinite succession is possible or invalid.”

This is why many groups say:

“The act of creation is distinct from the created thing, and the act is distinct from what it produces.”

They affirm this for you while rejecting an infinite succession, as do many followers of Abū Hanīfa, Mālik, al-Shāfi'ī and Ahmad, and many of the Sufis