And our expression, “where a finder can find it,” points to the location in which it exists. Whatever has no location or whereabouts cannot be found, and whatever cannot be found is not existent but nonexistent. As he explained, negating location, whereabouts, and similar adverbial relations in every respect is like negating any relation of “before,” “after,” or “together with.” It is evident that this applies only to what is nonexistent, and the same holds for the other case.

What confirms this is that whenever you explain the actual position of those who negate to anyone of sound natural disposition, endowed with intelligence, discernment, and clear understanding, he invariably says, “This is nothing.” Hence people have frequently described them as negators of His attributes, saying that they have reduced Him to nonexistence, and the like. I myself have surveyed various groups of people and found that their natural dispositions all accord with this.

The third argument is for them to say: We know by rational necessity that whatever exists must be either a bearer of attributes or an attribute; or we know that whatever subsists in itself must bear attributes. This is agreed upon among