if Plato’s position is that the world was not preceded by time, while he holds that time is finite in the past, it follows that the world is not beginningless. What substance, then, is there to his statement that the contingent cannot be beginningless—that is, eternal? On his view, it would be impossible for anything possible in itself to be beginningless, which contradicts his own statement. Thus, an error has occurred in this account, either in the word “contingent” or in the word “beginningless.”

He should then be asked: Glory be to Allah! Who has made this group of Greeks and their followers alone the learned, to the exclusion of all other nations and the followers of the prophets? No one possessed of reason and religion disputes that the followers of the prophets are more knowledgeable than they are. What demonstration do they possess that establishes this truth? You yourself have mentioned that the very practitioners of the art of demonstration disagreed about it. Had their art made it clear, its leading practitioners would not have disagreed about it.

It should then be asked: Who has singled these people out as the masters of demonstration, when even the utmost they have to offer in theology does not qualify as