For if whatever is described as being before or after something else is time, it would follow that Allah is time, and that every existent thing is time whenever it is said that this is before or after that. Existence precedes nonexistence, nonexistence precedes existence, and existence precedes an existent thing. If whatever is described as being before or after something is time, then all these things are time. Yet no one says this.
If it is said, “Describing something as being before or after something else necessarily entails time; time is that to which precedence and succession belong intrinsically, whereas they do not belong intrinsically to these things,” the reply is: The precedence of nonexistence over existence does not entail that, but it does entail that time is necessarily involved. On this supposition, time is that in which precedence and succession are intelligible, even if it is nonexistent, since the supposition is that nonexistence precedes existence. Accordingly, time, understood in this sense, need not be something existent; rather, it may be something nonexistent, even though precedence and succession are intelligible within it. For there is no difference between nonexistence and existence as points of temporal reference. One may say, “This occurred at the time of such-and-such a thing’s nonexistence and passing away,” just as one says, “at the time of its existence and coming into being.”
Furthermore, either may have parts distinguishable from one another, as with differing instances of existence and nonexistence; or its parts may be indistinguishable, as with a single state of existence and a single state of nonexistence. It is thus clear that this does not entail the beginninglessness of anything existent.
The second response is that, even if this required something existent by which one part could be distinguished from another—as with differing instances of existence and nonexistence—Allah’s existence and the light of His Face would suffice. He, glorified is He, manifests as much of His light as He wills, just as He manifests as much of the light of His creatures as He wills. Through this, periods of time are marked out and delimited, without any need for anything other than Him. Thus, if there was nothing