nor does the latter exist now. Each has existence at a time other than this one: the former in the past, and the latter in the future. Whether something is past or future is relative to a point considered later than the past and earlier than the future. Otherwise, everything past was once future, and everything future will become past, just as everything present was once future and will become past.

[The Fourth]

Al-Āmidī said:

“The fourth argument: If something infinite existed, then at any posited time it would have an endpoint at that time. Yet it is impossible for something infinite to have an endpoint.”

He said:

“This, too, is unsound. Having an endpoint on one side—the later one—even if the opponent concedes it, does not entail having an endpoint on the other side.

Moreover, the same argument would apply to the progression of numbers, the bliss of the people of Paradise, and the punishment of the people of Hell: although finite with respect to their beginning, they are potentially infinite toward the future.”

[Ibn Taymiyyah’s Commentary]

I say: This argument is of the same kind as the sixth argument mentioned by al-Rāzī, namely:

“If past events were infinite, then