they hold that all five senses—hearing, sight, smell, taste, and touch—can apprehend anything that exists. Thus, in their view, nothing that exists is incapable of being perceived by the senses. It is therefore incorrect to say that reason and knowledge apprehend what cannot be apprehended by the senses, unless this impossibility is qualified by saying, for example, “what we cannot perceive by our senses in our present state,” or “what lies beyond our capacity for sensory perception.” Otherwise, such sensory perception is possible, and Allah Most High has the power to bring it about. He brings about whatever He wills of this, however He wills. There is no might nor power except through Allah, the Most High, the Most Great.

Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Rāzī then said:

“As for establishing this point concerning the acts of Allah Most High, this can be done in several ways. The first is that what we have observed is the change of attributes, such as water and soil becoming plants, and plants becoming part of an animal’s body. But entities being brought into existence initially, without any pre-existing matter or clay, is something we have never witnessed at all, nor do our estimation and imagination judge it possible. Yet we concede that He Most High brings entities into existence initially, without any pre-existing matter or clay.”