the first is that a body cannot be devoid of “accidents,” which are attributes; and the second is that whatever cannot be devoid of “attributes,” which are accidents, must have come into existence, because attributes—which are accidents—can only be things that have come into existence. They may posit this concerning certain attributes, or accidents, such as the akwān. Whatever cannot be devoid of events as a class must itself have come into existence, since an infinite series of events is impossible.

It is self-evident that Muhammad did not use this method to call people to acknowledge the Creator and the prophethood of His prophets. For this reason, even accomplished speculative theologians, such as al-Ashʿarī and others, have acknowledged that it is not the method of the messengers and their followers, nor of the early generations of the Muslim community and its leading scholars. They have stated that those authorities regarded it as forbidden. Indeed, scholars who have critically examined it hold that it is an invalid method, and that its premises require distinctions and qualifications that prevent it from establishing the claim unconditionally.

Thus, anyone who relies on it for the foundations of his religion inevitably faces one of two outcomes. Either he discovers its weakness and compares it with the arguments of those who maintain that the world has always existed, so that he finds the arguments evenly balanced, or favours one side at one time and the other at another—as is the case with various groups among them—or he accepts, for its sake, implications known to be unsound according to both revelation and reason. Thus, for its sake, Jahm accepted the annihilation of Paradise and Hell, and Abū al-Hudhayl accepted the cessation of the movements of the inhabitants of Paradise. Others, such as al-Ashʿarī and those like him, accepted for its sake that water, air, and fire have taste, colour, smell, and similar attributes.

For the sake of this method and other considerations, some accepted that all “accidents,” such as taste, colour, and others, cannot persist at all, because they needed to answer the objection