—the alternative whose proponents’ contradictions have already been explained—or it came into being of itself.

The reply is:

This view is even more evidently false and contradictory. It is known through self-evident, innate understanding that something which previously did not exist cannot conceivably come into being without someone bringing it into being, nor can it bring itself into being. A thing cannot be its own maker or its own product, nor can it be its own final cause, as we have explained at length elsewhere.

Allah Most High says:

“Were they created by nothing, or are they themselves the creators? (35)” [al-Tūr: 35]

They explained this as meaning: “Without anyone to create them.”

Jubayr ibn Mut‘im said:

“When I heard the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, reciting this verse during the sunset prayer, I felt my heart split open.”

We have discussed this verse elsewhere. Through a rhetorical question expressing denial, He, glorified be He, made clear that the matter at issue belongs to the firmly established knowledge inherent in the person addressed—knowledge whose denial warrants rebuke, since the denier engages in sophistry by rejecting self-evident, innate knowledge