Thus, innate disposition knows self-evidently that it is impossible for every agent to have an agent, for an act to occur without an agent, or for an agent to be neither within nor outside an effect that subsists in its own right. Accordingly, drawing a parallel between an agent that has no agent and one that does is likewise impossible according to innate, self-evident knowledge.

Third, he says, “We have never witnessed an agent begin to act after not acting without a change in its state and an alteration in its attributes.” If he means a transformation from one state to another such that its very essence is transformed, that is not the case. For the sun, moon, and stars each swim in an orbit, yet their state has not changed, nor have their attributes been altered. If, however, he means that motion itself constitutes change and alteration, as some theologians maintain, then his statement means: “We have never witnessed an agent except one undergoing motion and transition, whether spiritual or bodily motion.”

His subsequent statement, “Then we acknowledged that He—exalted and holy is He—is the Creator of the world without any of that,” is contested both by his opponents here and by those who are not his opponents. For the theologians call this the question of temporal events occurring in His essence. It is well known that the position of the Karrāmiyyah is to affirm