to those versed in demonstrative reasoning—the scholars whom Allah Most High has distinguished with knowledge and whose testimony He has joined in the Noble Book with His own testimony and that of His angels.”

I say: He stated earlier that Plato and his followers hold that time is finite, and that they describe the world as having a beginning yet being eternal, because, in their view, time is finite in the past. Aristotle and his followers, by contrast, hold that time is infinite in the past just as it is infinite in the future, and do not describe the world as having a beginning. This implies that “eternal” in this passage means “everlasting,” without end; otherwise, the statements would contradict one another. Plato and his followers hold that the world has a beginning and is contingent, yet is nevertheless everlasting; and what is contingent