that Allah Most High is above the world. It does not occur to them to posit the existence of a being neither within the world nor outside it, such that they would then deny it; for statements incompatible with faith need not occur to every believer. But when people arose who introduced this denial as an innovation, the Muslims spoke in refutation of it: sometimes by explaining that Allah Most High is above His creation, without addressing anything beyond this; sometimes by demonstrating the impossibility of the contrary; and sometimes by demonstrating the impossibility of a being neither within the world nor outside it. Whoever knows that Allah, Mighty and Majestic, is above the world denies that He is neither within the world nor outside it. As for whether a being neither within the world nor outside it could exist, that question may or may not occur to him.

The third point:

This argument is not analogous to the argument he cited from the eternalists. For these people said:

“The Creator and the creation both exist. Of any two existing beings, one must either inhere in the other or be separate from it.”

The same applies if it is expressed as follows:

“One must either be within the other or outside it.”

Likewise, if it is expressed as follows:

“One must either be connected to and alongside the other, or separate and apart from it.”

They then said:

“He is not within it, so He must be outside it.”

This is what they seek to establish. Its counterpart would therefore be to say:

“The Creator and the world both exist. Of any two existing beings, either they are coeval in existence, or one precedes the other. The Creator is not coeval with the world, so He must precede it.”

This is true. This, then, is the complete parallel and correspondence between the two arguments.