And if He has always had the power to act, this is an attribute of perfection. Hence ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz said:

“Because acting is an attribute, and Allah has the power to act, with nothing preventing Him from doing so.”

He created all created things through His action: they came into being through the act of creation, and the act of creation occurs through the power of Allah Most High. The power to create a thing is the power to perform that act.

As Allah Most High says:

“Is not He who created the heavens and the earth able to create the likes of them? Yes.” (Yā Sīn: 81)

And He says:

“Is He not able to give life to the dead?” (al-Qiyāmah: 40)

And He says:

“Say, ‘He is able to send upon you punishment from above you.’” (al-Anʿām: 65)

These verses, and others like them, describe Allah as having power over actions that encompass the things produced by them. They also explain that the act of creation is not the thing created, nor is His very act of creating the heavens and the earth the heavens and the earth themselves; and the power that falters, after which created things came into being without any act whatsoever.

Al-Marīsī would then say to him:

“That act which is His attribute, which He has the power to perform, and which nothing prevents Him from performing—if it is beginningless, it is like His power, and the question directed at me is equally directed at you. If it originated without another act preceding it, I would ask you why it originated through the power that has always existed, just as you asked me why the prior occurrence of another act came about; I would ask you why it originated through the power that has always existed, just as you asked me why the created thing originated through the power that has always existed. And if that act came about through another act, and an infinite regress ensued