by Plato, and in other works, there is much material of this kind. This man himself has related that most of them pursued their inquiry no further than the celestial sphere and affirmed nothing existing beyond it. It is well known that their conception of the Necessary Existent provides the strongest inducement to worship celestial bodies and idols. How, then, can these be the people who understand the testimony that there is no god but Allah? Rather, to say that these men and their like are the root of all polytheism, the rot within religious communities, and the enemies of the messengers would be closer to the truth than his testimony on their behalf.

I say: What his own statements and his account of these philosophers imply is that whatever is established to be possible and contingent must have come into being, and that whatever is beginningless must necessarily exist. Thus, once something is established to be contingent, it is established to have come into being. Attention has already been drawn to this.

Ibn Rushd said: “As for Abū al-Ma‘ālī, he sought to establish this