an essence susceptible to increase and decrease, and anything of this kind must have been brought into existence, as we have explained.”

He may be told: We have already discussed this argument and explained that the vast majority of people—Muslims, Jews, Christians, Sabians, Magians, and polytheists—disagree with you on this premise. We also clearly demonstrated, in numerous ways, the invalidity of the argument you advanced in its support. We refer the reader to our earlier discussion, just as he referred back to his.

As for the second reason, it is his statement: “Since He is finite on all