Allah’s acting perpetually—is the very principle upon which they built the foundations of their religion, making it the foundation of the Muslims’ religion. They said:

Bodies are never free of temporally originated events, and whatever is never free of such events is itself temporally originated. Alternatively, whatever does not precede temporally originated events is itself temporally originated, because whatever is neither free of them nor precedes them must exist alongside them or after them. Whatever exists alongside temporally originated events or after them is itself temporally originated.

Many of them offer no proof for this, regarding it as self-evident, since they do not distinguish between events as a class and a particular event. Those among them who recognize the distinction, however, offer a proof by saying:

Events cannot be perpetual; rather, it is impossible for there to be events with no beginning.

Some of them also deny the possibility of events with no end, as do the two leading figures of this speculative theology: Jahm ibn Safwān and Abū al-Hudhayl.

Since the real implication of this position is that Allah, glorified be He, was not capable of acting from eternity, but became capable of acting after having been incapable of it, this was among the things for which Muslims condemned these people. Indeed, it was even counted among al-Ash'arī’s innovations during the unrest in Khurāsān, when curses against the people of innovation were publicly pronounced. The account is well known.

Furthermore, the speculative theologians and their leading figures—such as al-Nazzām, al-'Allāf, and other teachers of the Mu'tazilah and the Jahmiyyah, together with their followers from the various other groups—say:

The religion of Islam rests entirely upon this principle, and it cannot be known that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, except through this