does not require a temporal interval separating the act from the agent. Thus you say, “I moved my hand, and so my garment moved,” or “my ring moved,” and the like. The hand’s movement precedes the movement of the ring and sleeve, yet both occur at the same time. Likewise, if this particular determination is contingent and comes about by His will and choice, that does not preclude His preceding His act with a priority that is not temporal.

Although the philosophers maintain this much concerning His priority over the world, these groups do not maintain it in that connection. Rather, they maintain it concerning His priority over this act subsisting in His own person and His being in a particular spatial region. They hold the same concerning all the particular utterances and acts attributed to Him that subsist in His own person, where He can say or do something else by His will and choice. This is a position known to be held by many groups among his opponents, including speculative theologians, adherents of hadith, Sufis, and others.