Chapter Two: Their denial that the Lord, Exalted is He, precedes in time; their denial that nonexistence precedes existence in time; and their assertion, shared by those speculative theologians who agree with them, that the Lord’s precedence over the world is not temporal

We say: Real, intelligible precedence must be either temporal alone, non-temporal, both temporal and non-temporal, or neither temporal nor non-temporal.

As for the first, there is no doubt that earlier human beings, such as forefathers, precede later generations in time. When temporal precedence is examined closely, it means that the earlier generations coexisted with a time preceding that of the later generations. Thus, precedence and posteriority pertain both to the two times and to those who lived in them. Yet the precedence of a time is known through the earlier existence of its inhabitants, just as its precedence is known through theirs; and the posteriority of a time is known through the posteriority of its inhabitants, just as its posteriority is known through theirs. For a time and its inhabitants coexist: the precedence of either is the precedence of its counterpart, and its posteriority is the posteriority of its counterpart.

This is known, in the case of days, through sunrise and sunset; in the case of months, through the new moons; and in the case of years, through counting, as with weeks. This is the system prescribed for the Muslims. Other nations have other systems for reckoning years. Some determine their months by counting and their year by a natural cycle, such as the sun’s motion, although the sun’s movement through a particular sign of the zodiac