the question of how this comes into being is no different from the question of how its effect comes into being. Whichever way they turn, they are compelled to admit that events come into being in the world without anything else coming into being in the world. Consider celestial motion, which comes into being successively in the world, or the motion of the soul that moves it, according to those among them who hold this view. This would come into being within the world and among contingent beings, without any cause among contingent beings necessitating its occurrence, and without anything arising among contingent beings or within the world to establish that event’s causal efficacy.

If, then, some events in the world have no complete cause within the world necessitating their occurrence, it follows that the complete necessitating cause of their occurrence is something outside the world. Nothing is outside the world except Allah, glorified be He. He can therefore bring events into being after they did not exist, without anything assisting Him in doing so. This is what was to be established.

Know that the discussion here has two aspects. The first is to invalidate their argument for the world’s eternity, namely their claim: “It cannot come into being after not existing, because an event requires something to bring it about, while an event’s arising from a complete, eternal cause is impossible. Therefore, the world cannot have come into being.”

It has become clear that this is contradicted by all events and by anything proposed as their cause, if such a cause exists, for these come into being after not existing. The motion of the celestial sphere itself plainly refutes their argument: motion consists of successive events, and, according to them, there is no newly arising cause above it that necessitates it. Thus, on their account, these are events arising from an eternal cause. They have therefore admitted that an event can arise from a complete, eternal motion. If, however,