and nothing created can exist within Him, nor can He be deficient such that something is added to Him when He creates it—exalted, majestic and supremely great is Allah, far above that.

If he says, ‘He created it within something other than Himself,’ then reflection and analogy necessarily commit him to saying that every utterance Allah creates within another is Allah’s speech; no distinction can be drawn between the two. Is poetry, then, to be considered Allah’s speech? Is filthy speech to be considered Allah’s speech? Are obscenity and disbelief to be considered Allah’s speech? Is every utterance that Allah has condemned, along with the one who uttered it, to be considered Allah’s speech? This is impossible. There is no way for him to establish or maintain it, given the manifest enormity, disgrace and disbelief it entails for anyone who says it.

If he says, ‘He created it as something subsisting independently in and of itself,’ this is an impossible falsehood that cannot be maintained on the basis of analogy, reflection or reason. Speech can only proceed from a speaker, just as will can only proceed from one who wills, knowledge from one who knows, and power from one who possesses power. No one has ever seen, nor will anyone ever see, speech subsisting independently and speaking by itself. Since its being created is impossible in all three of these ways, it is established that it is an attribute of Allah, and all of Allah’s attributes are uncreated.”

And (the second argument:

He and Bishr agreed that Allah existed when nothing else existed, and that He existed before He had acted or created anything.

He asked him: “By what, then, did He bring things into existence?”

He replied: “He brought them into existence by His power, which has always existed.”