In their view it is possible, and every possibility is either realizable or impossible. If it is realizable, the desired conclusion is reached; if it is impossible, it follows that everything other than Him must be originated.

Thus it becomes evident that their claim that any part of the universe is eternal rests on no proof whatsoever. The same holds for their assertion that priority and posteriority can only be conceived within time—which they define as the measure of motion—and that for a thing to be originated necessarily means it existed after not existing, with “before” and “after” being inseparable from time. At most, this entails the perpetual continuity of the species of action, not the everlasting motion of the celestial sphere, the sun, or the moon.

Indeed, if God created the heavens and the earth in six days, then this very sun and moon, this very night and day, are created entities that came into being after having been nothing. And when, after the Day of Resurrection, the heavens are rent asunder, the sun is folded up, the moon eclipsed, and the stars scattered, there will be other motions and therefore another kind of time.

Allah, exalted be He, says about Paradise:

“And therein they shall have their provision morning and evening.” (Maryam 19:62)

In Paradise there is also Friday, the Day of Increase. Thus there are days distinguished by other realities that God has placed in Paradise, independent of the sun and the moon.

Likewise, their statement that every originated thing is preceded by a possibility that depends on underlying matter amounts only to saying that before each event there is another event. This does not establish the eternity of anything in the cosmos; it merely entails a succession of happenings.

In the same vein, if it is said that being an efficient cause is a positive attribute, and if that attribute itself is originated