The third answer:

This is the answer of Ma‘mar and his followers, who are known as “Ahl al-Ma‘ānī.” They affirm an infinite regress within a single instant. They say that the act of creation itself has an act of creation, that this act of creation has another act of creation, and so on without end, all existing within a single instant. This position is well known to be theirs.

The fourth answer is the position of those who say:

An act of creation that comes into being requires a newly arising cause; that cause likewise requires another, and so on. This entails the perpetual occurrence of things of this kind, which is not impossible. For the position of the early generations is that Allah has never ceased to speak whenever He wills. His words have no end, and every utterance is preceded by another, without any finite limit. He, glorified be He, speaks by His power and His will.

They likewise say that whatever is living must be active, as al-Bukhārī stated and related from Nu‘aym ibn Hammād, ‘Uthmān ibn Sa‘īd, Ibn Khuzaymah, and others. It must likewise be in motion, as ‘Uthmān ibn Sa‘īd al-Dārimī and others stated. Each of the two mentions that this is the position of Ahl al-Sunnah. This is also affirmed by leading philosophers, both earlier and later, whose statements to this effect have been cited elsewhere.

They say that this is an infinite regress of effects, whereas demonstration establishes only the impossibility of an infinite regress of causes. The invalidity of the latter is known through clear reason, and rational thinkers agree that it is impossible, as has been discussed at length elsewhere.