the Last, nothing can precede Him or come after Him. As the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) said:

“You are the First, and there is nothing before You. You are the Last, and there is nothing after You. You are the Manifest, and there is nothing above You. You are the Hidden, and there is nothing beneath You.”

Yet He who is the First and the Last has neither beginning nor end. Since He has neither limit nor end in either respect, it is clear that nothing can be before Him or after Him, unlike finite, bounded spatial regions. But this supposition arises from the particular nature of space and time, as shown by the fact that the inhabitants of Paradise have no end to their existence; rather, they remain forever, even though they occupy space. Thus, their continued existence has neither limit nor end, although their beings are bounded and finite within their spatial regions and places. Hence, when Jahm sought to apply consistently his argument that every created thing must have an end, he held that Paradise and Hell must cease to exist.