On this basis, this “argument” need only be stated as follows: if He created it, He would either create it in a subject, so that it would be an attribute of that subject, or create it as something self-subsisting. Both are impossible.

The possibility that He creates it within Himself need not be mentioned here. For its being created entails that there is an act by which it is created. If the act of creation inhering in Him were itself created, it too would require an act of creation. This would entail that every act of creation is created, and thus that an act of creation is created without an act of creation—which is impossible.

This reasoning is sound on the principle upheld by the early generations, Ahl al-Sunnah, and the majority, who say that nothing created can be created except through an act of creation.

As for someone who says that a thing can be created without an act of creation, and that the act of creation is nothing other than the created thing itself, it may be said on his premises: one possibility is that He creates it within Himself, with the created thing being the very act of creation—which is what its coming into being means. The matter then comes down to this: if He brings it into being, He does so either within Himself or outside Himself. It has thus become clear how this argument is to be formulated according to the principles of each group.

When this argument is framed according to the position of “the early generations and the majority,” it has two formulations. If you wish, you may say: He either creates it as something self-subsisting or as something subsisting in another. Do not say “within Himself,” because nothing created can exist within Him.

Alternatively, you may include this in the division and say: or He creates it within Himself. Then say: this is impossible, because anything created must have an act by which it is created. If He created it within Himself, it would require an act of creation, and what came into being within Him would be something created that required an act of creation. His act of creating it would therefore also require an act of creation, and so on indefinitely.

If every act of creation is created, no act of creation remains except one that is created. And if no act of creation remains except one that is created, this entails the existence of something created without an act of creation, since there is no uncreated act of creation in this account.