And what we have witnessed is among the most striking examples of creation: He creates from a thing something unlike it in kind, while the original source does not contain the attributes found in what is derived from it. These created things, which neither existed in their original source nor lay latent within it, are brought into being after not existing, not transferred from one state to another. Even if they were so transferred, the very attributes inhering in them would have been brought into being after not existing. Thus, we have witnessed substances and accidents being brought into being after their nonexistence.

This is sufficient for the matter at hand, for we need not witness every substance and accident being brought into being after its nonexistence. Rather, once we have witnessed whatever substances and accidents Allah wills being brought into being after their nonexistence, we know this through sense perception. We then apprehend through reasoning and analogy what we have not witnessed. Such is our knowledge of all things: we perceive some individual instances through our senses and infer what we have not observed by analogy with what we have witnessed. Otherwise, no person could know everything through their own senses.

It has thus become clear that the way we know Allah’s acts, through sense perception and reason, is like the way we know all other matters. It has also become clear that what we have not observed of the acts of