Al-Bukhārī said: This is because Allah Most High says:

‘They encompass nothing of His knowledge except what He wills.’ [al-Baqarah: 255]

That is, what He has made clear.”

As for the eternalists’ claim that the heavens have always been as they are and will remain so forever, this is an explicit denial of, and manifest disbelief in, what is in the Quran and what the believers unanimously accept and know beyond doubt to have been taught by the messengers.

Likewise, the claim of the Jahmiyyah—or those among them who hold it—that the heavens and the earth were created without prior matter and in no span of time, and that they will perish or cease to exist, or that Paradise too will perish: all of this contradicts the explicit texts of the Quran. For this reason, the early generations declared these people disbelievers, although the disbelief of the former group is more evident and manifest. However, the eternalists did not openly proclaim their doctrine during the time of the early generations as the Jahmiyyah did theirs.

Allah Most High willing, this will be discussed when we address the author of al-Ta’sīs’s argument against Allah’s being above creation, based on His words:

“He is the First and the Last.” [al-Hadīd: 3]

The Jahmiyyah before him likewise used this verse as evidence.

The way to understand what the Messenger brought is to know his authentically transmitted words, how they were explained by those who received both their wording and their meaning from him, the language in which they communicated with one another, the expressions subsequently introduced, and the changes in terminology.