Accordingly, the very foundation of their doctrine is that the Maker is a self-necessitating agent, a pre-eternal and complete cause whose effect is inseparable from Him; therefore none of His effects can possibly be posterior to Him. A complete cause necessarily entails its effect, and an agent who acts by the sheer necessity of His essence is one whose very being requires whatever He brings about; hence nothing of what He produces or effects can be delayed with respect to Him.

On that basis they claimed that the universe is eternal, and this is, in their estimation, the strongest proof for its pre-eternity. They argue: “Whatever comes into existence after not having existed must have an originating cause; otherwise one of two equal possibilities would be preferred without a determinant. The same argument then applies to that originating cause, and so one is forced into an infinite regress—agreed by rational people to be impossible—or even into a vicious circle, which is more impossible still.”

The notion of such an infinite regress differs, however, from the disputed question of a perpetual chain of events. As for the continual occurrence of events without beginning or end, Muslims and others hold three opinions. One view deems it permissible without qualification; this is the position of the leading scholars of Sunnah and Ḥadith and of the principal philosophers. Yet Muslims, the adherents of other faiths, and the majority of rational thinkers of every persuasion maintain that everything apart from God is created—brought into existence after having been nonexistent—though some among them still contend that events have been unceasing, coming one after another.