which contradicts the principle he laid down. What has become clear thus far shows that his account of these two philosophers and their followers amounts to their agreement that whatever is contingent has a beginning. Thus, if it has been established that the world is contingent, it has been established that it had a beginning. This is why he himself denied its contingency and held Ibn Sīnā to be mistaken in saying that it is contingent in itself, despite agreeing with him that it is beginningless.

As for what he understood from their statements here and advanced as an objection—namely, his attribution to Plato of the view that what is contingent can be beginningless—this is inconsistent with what preceded, for