[Whatever exists is either the Creator or the created, and each possesses an existence proper to itself]

It is a rational necessity that there must be an eternal being, self-sufficient and independent of all else. For we witness the origination of things—animals, minerals, plants—whose coming-to-be shows that they are contingent, neither necessary nor impossible in themselves. It is self-evident that every originated thing requires an originator and every contingent thing needs a necessary being, as the Most High says: “Were they created out of nothing, or are they their own creators?” (Qur’an 52:35). Since they were neither produced without a Creator nor did they create themselves, it is certain that they have a Creator who brought them into existence.

[Sharing a name does not entail sameness of the things named]

Given, then, that reality unquestionably contains one being that is eternal and necessary in itself and others that are originated and contingent—capable of both existence and non-existence—it follows that both are rightly called “existent.” Yet their common inclusion under the term existence does not mean that the existence of one is identical to the existence of the other; each has an existence peculiar to it. The mere sharing of a general name never requires the things denoted by that name to be alike, whether the term is used absolutely or with qualification, restriction, or specification. No rational person, on hearing that the Throne is an existing thing and that a gnat is an existing thing, would claim they are identical simply because they both fall under the word “thing.”