and past eternity without limit—namely, Allah’s life without limit, by which one swears, saying, “By Allah’s life,” as the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) and his Companions did.

Their subsequent assertion, “He does not admit of being described as finite or as not finite,” negates what they have affirmed by saying that He is infinite. Likewise, his statement, “It is impossible for Him to have an extremity, an end, or a limit,” conveys that His essence is infinite and has no end, whereas he intended only that an end may neither be affirmed nor denied of His essence. This latter description, however, is that of what is nonexistent.

In short, in this discussion they must interpret the denial of an end either as a description of what is nonexistent or as implying an existence that is infinite in itself. If they say that the existence of that being is infinite in itself, then this is the view of one who