need for them to establish distinction apart from these respects, which he has conceded, it becomes clear that this answer is unsound.

The fourth point is that it may be said: The distinction between Allah, glorified and exalted be He, and the world involves more than you have mentioned. He is distinct from the world in that He knows all things and has power over all things; whatever He wills comes to pass, and whatever He does not will does not come to pass; and likewise with His other attributes. He is also distinct from the world in His power, greatness, exaltedness, and majesty. These matters do not constitute distinction in time. Either he says that they constitute distinction in essence, or he does not. If he says that they constitute distinction in essence, his claim that those distinctions are additional to distinction in essence is invalidated. If he does not say that they constitute distinction in essence, then a distinction beyond those he has mentioned has been established.

One of two things therefore necessarily follows: either there are distinctions beyond those he has mentioned, or everything he has mentioned, apart from co-location, is confined to essence and time. It is already known that the distinction between the Creator and the world goes beyond distinction in essence and substrate. Yet he claimed that it consists in these matters to the exclusion of others, although it has become clear that these matters are no different from the others. Thus his response to the response to that argument is not sound.