and the most these people have said is that these events follow the successive movements of the celestial sphere. The purpose here is not to discuss this answer. Nor is the point that, if they stipulate conditions without this constituting an impossible regress, the same applies here with even greater force.

The second approach is to say: Even if the cause is fully present from eternity, why do you claim that its effect cannot fail to occur?

As for his statement, “It is necessarily known that when a cause is present, together with everything required to complete its causal efficacy, its effect cannot fail to occur,” the response is: This is a universal proposition asserting that the effect of every complete cause cannot fail to occur. A universal proposition must have instances other than the disputed case that it is being used to establish.

It is known that, in all existence, there is no complete cause other than Allah. Indeed, no effect proceeds from any single created thing on its own; rather, it proceeds only from two or more things. Nor is there any created thing that can be called a cause without