co-located with something else or separate from it.

“I also know that this is analogous to the eternalist philosopher’s statement: ‘Of two existing things, one must either coexist with the other or precede it.’ As for your assertion that this entails the world’s prior existence, I neither affirm nor deny this implication with certainty.”

He may also say:

“I need not examine this counterargument. Whether I am certain that the implication holds, certain that it does not, or certain of neither, I say:

“What you have mentioned either entails that some body is eternal or it does not. If it does not, the counterargument fails. If it does entail that some body is eternal, my knowledge that bodies came into being—which you call the world’s coming into being—is no clearer to me than my knowledge of this proposition. For this premise is known necessarily and innately, whereas the other requires lengthy, obscure premises and is much disputed.

“Nor is the evidence in the Quran and Sunnah that all bodies came into being clearer than their evidence that Allah Most High is above the world. Indeed, the Quran abounds in indications that Allah Most High is above the world. It also indicates that Allah created the heavens, the earth, and everything between them in six days, but it mentions alongside this that He rose over the Throne. What the Quran states throughout these verses cannot establish that all bodies came into being except through intermediary premises derived by inference: one must demonstrate that what is mentioned in the Quran constitutes bodies, and that no body exists other than those He has declared He created. The Quran’s indication that Allah is above, however, requires no premises