As for the causal and conditional precedence they mention, this has been disputed. They have been told that when two things are simultaneous, neither can precede the other in any respect. For if precedence is an attribute of time and is the opposite of simultaneity, then combining precedence and posteriority with simultaneity in the very same two things amounts to combining opposites. Just as something cannot be both ahead of another and alongside it with respect to place, rank, and their attendant constraints, so it cannot be both before another and simultaneous with it with respect to time and its associated conditions.

Thus, whoever says that the world is simultaneous with Allah cannot consistently say that it is after Him or posterior to Him, nor that Allah is before it or precedes it.

This calls for a discussion specifically of the causal and conditional precedence they affirm without temporal precedence, and of their denial of temporal precedence to Allah as impossible, just as they also deny His elevation in place. The matter will therefore be treated in two sections.