the act not to occur, there would be no reason for that act to occur at that time rather than remain nonexistent as before.”

They may then be told: A new resolve must arise in Him when these events, together with the wisdom they embody, come into being. The question of how that resolve arises is then no different from the question you raised concerning a newly arising cause for the world. Moreover, you have said that if the will is eternal, the thing willed must also be eternal. Thus, if He had an eternal will, temporal events would necessarily be eternal.

In short, you face two alternatives: either you deny intention and will—and it has become clear, both from your own statements and as a necessary consequence of your position, that this amounts to denying the necessarily existent Being—or you acknowledge intention and will, thereby invalidating everything you have built upon their denial. Everything in which they oppose the followers of the revealed religions rests solely upon that denial. Once it is acknowledged that the all-knowing Maker acts by choice, this philosophy collapses, just as a structure built on the brink of a crumbling bank collapses.

There is no doubt that this verse contains an allusion and a lesson applicable to situations such as theirs. For they have constructed doctrines that hearts adopt as beliefs and aims in opposition to what the Messengers brought, like “those who established a mosque to cause harm, promote disbelief, divide the believers, and provide an outpost for those who had previously fought Allah and His Messenger. And they will surely swear, ‘Not