embracing only the position of the eternalists, who affirm the Necessary Existent and [do not] distinguish between the necessary and the contingent. Rather, they identify His existence with the existence of contingent beings and acknowledge no existence for Him apart from the existence of the earth and the heavens. Those of their leading figures who speak openly declare that their position is Pharaoh’s position and that they follow Pharaoh’s position. Thus, they advance the eternalists’ doctrine, which entails denying the Creator—the worst of all doctrines—and claim that this is true understanding and spiritual knowledge.

This is because you have led them along the path of negation and denial, which does not affirm for the Creator an existence distinct from creation. Whoever follows this path is driven to deny that anything exists beyond the world. This is nothing but the eternalists’ position. How, then, can you disavow them when your own position leads to theirs, either explicitly or by necessary implication?!

Fourth:

It may be said to him: You acknowledge your inability to counter the eternalists, and in your largest work, al-Matālib al-‘Āliya (The Lofty Aims), you presented the arguments