so it is all the more clear that Allah’s attributes cannot validly be used to infer that the One possessing them came into existence. Moreover, “this argument” for the world’s having come into existence requires lengthy examination, for which this is not the place.

The same response may also be given to the philosophers. There is no doubt that He is the Originator of the world and the cause of its existence, and they ascribe to Him certain things concerning intellect and providence which they must affirm. Thus, the same reasoning applies to what the adherents of the Book and Sunnah affirm as applies to what all schools must affirm. His reality has been established through necessary knowledge and conclusive proofs, and they agree on this. It has also been established that He is self-subsisting and is not of the same kind as other self-subsisting things, whether spirits or bodies. Since they agree that He is self-subsisting and is not of the same kind as other bodies and spirits, likewise the attributes that belong to Him in His own right are not of the same kind as those belonging to other things.

If it is supposed that an originated accident inhering in a substance proves that the substance came into existence, this does not entail that everything subsisting in another is an accident unless it also entails that everything self-subsisting is a substance. For if someone may refrain from calling some self-subsisting things substances, he may likewise refrain from calling some things that subsist in another accidents. Indeed, declining to call enduring qualities accidents accords more closely with linguistic usage. If, however, someone calls everything that subsists in another an accident, he may then call everything self-subsisting a substance.