in His essence, because He knows all things, and no attribute contrary to knowledge can subsist in the essence of one who knows. A false inward assertion is contrary to knowledge.

They may therefore be told:

If an inward assertion were distinct from knowledge, knowledge could coexist with the contrary of that assertion, just as they themselves argue in many other cases. This is among the strongest arguments employed by al-Qādī Abū Bakr and those who agree with him concerning the intellect and other questions, including al-Qādī Abū Yaʿlā, Abū Muhammad ibn al-Labbān, Abū ʿAlī ibn Shādhān, Abū al-Tayyib, Abū al-Walīd al-Bājī, Abū al-Khattāb, Ibn ʿAqīl, and others.

They say:

“The intellect is a kind of knowledge, since it is not contrary to knowledge. If it were not a kind of knowledge, it would be distinct from it; and if it were distinct, knowledge could coexist with the contrary of intellect.”

Although this argument is weak—as the majority have judged it, with Abū al-Maʿālī al-Juwaynī among those who have criticized it—anything that entails something else cannot be contrary to it, since the two coexist. Nor is it a kind of that other thing; rather, it is distinct from it, according to their terminology, which classifies any two things as alike, distinct, or contrary.

Thus, an attribute that entails another—as will entails knowledge, or knowledge entails life—is neither contrary to nor like the attribute it entails; rather, it is distinct from it. Nevertheless, it cannot coexist with the contrary of its necessary condition, because the contrary of that condition excludes it, and the existence of what entails something without what it entails is impossible—as with the existence of will without knowledge, or knowledge without life. Each such pair consists, in their terminology, of two distinct things, yet one cannot coexist with the contrary of the other.

Likewise, knowledge entails intellect: everyone who possesses knowledge possesses intellect, and intellect is a condition of knowledge. It is neither like knowledge, nor contrary to it, nor a kind of it. Nevertheless, knowledge cannot coexist with the contrary of intellect.