formulation is better than the former. This second formulation is the one al-Suhrawardī presents in his Talwīhāt. It is one of the two formulations mentioned by al-Rāzī, and also one of al-Āmidī’s formulations.
Al-Suhrawardī said:
“Since each contingent being requires a cause, their aggregate also requires one, because it is an effect of its contingent individual members. It therefore requires a cause external to itself, and that cause is contingent, for if it were contingent, it would belong to the aggregate. It is therefore necessary in existence.”
Al-Āmidī formulated the argument in a third way: if the aggregate is necessary in itself, that is precisely what is to be established. He said: “The aggregate is either necessary in itself or contingent. It cannot be necessary, for otherwise it would not be the case that