That conclusion is judged absolutely impossible only by those theologians who deny the possibility of an infinite series of temporal events. For the philosophers, it is not impossible in an unqualified sense—nor is it for many leading scholars of the religious communities, including the early generations (salaf) and the great Imams who say that God has never ceased to speak whenever He wills. They also maintain that acting is inherent in life, for every living being is active; indeed, more than one of them states outright that every living being is in motion. These very notions were expressly affirmed by a number of the salaf, the scholars of Sunnah, and the authorities of ḥadīth.

Had those theologians said to the philosophers, “Granted that this entails an infinite regress; but according to your own doctrine such a regress is admissible, so your proof collapses on your own grounds,” they would have exposed the flaw in the philosophers’ argument. The philosophers, however, answer the theologians by saying, “The regress that follows here is a regress in the very root of causation—in the agent’s complete actuality as an agent—and such a regress is universally conceded to be impossible, just as an infinite regress in the agent himself is impossible.”