The earlier philosophers who affirmed that the universe is originated—even more, who affirmed the divine attributes and the voluntary acts that subsist in God—precede Aristotle. The first of the Peripatetic philosophers known to have claimed the eternity of the celestial spheres was Aristotle, yet the proofs he advanced are exceedingly feeble and cannot establish the point he desired. All he really did was argue for the eternity of time, saying that time is the measure of motion; from this he concluded that motion, too, must be eternal. He then assumed that the very genus of time is the measure of the motion of the heavens, and that is a grave error. For when one says, “Time is the measure of motion,” time in its genus is the measure of motion in general, not of any particular motion; a particular stretch of time is only the measure of a particular motion. Hence Muslims hold that the genus of time will remain after the Resurrection, the splitting of the heavens, and the rolling up of the sun. The people of Paradise will experience intervals of time that correspond to motions other than the motion of the celestial sphere; in the Hereafter they will have the “Day of Increase,” Friday, even though Paradise contains neither sun nor bitter cold, but rather other kinds of lights and motions.

Therefore, whoever says that the Lord has never ceased to speak whenever He wills, however He wills, and with whatever He wills, regards speech as an intrinsic attribute subsisting in the Essence of God. He speaks through His action, and His action proceeds from His will and power. If one says that the genus of that speech is eternal, this satisfies the proof that requires the eternity of that genus without entailing that anything in the creation is co-eternal with God, exalted is He. There is no need, then, to posit a first beginning for the possibility of the act, nor to combine two opposites by saying: “If an act—or a contingent event—must be preceded by non-existence, yet the possibility of it has no first moment.” Such a formulation unites contradictions, just as does the assertion that He has never ceased to be able while the object of His power cannot endure forever.