on “the question of the Lord’s possessing power and acting by choice,” and the considerable shortcomings in its treatment—matters that are not our subject here.

(The purpose here is to discuss the matter among adherents of religions who affirm the truth of the messengers. We therefore say: There are several questions here.

The first question:

Allah has stated that He has power over all things. People hold three views on this:

“One group” says that this is general in scope and includes what is intrinsically impossible, such as combining two contraries; this, too, therefore falls within the scope of divine power. A group that includes Ibn Hazm holds this view.

“Another group” says that this is a general statement subject to an exception: what is intrinsically impossible is excluded. Although it is a thing, it does not fall within the scope of divine power. Ibn ‘Atiyyah and others have stated this view.

Both views are mistaken. The correct view is the third, held by the great majority of those engaged in rational inquiry: what is intrinsically impossible is not a thing at all. Although they disagree concerning the nonexistent, what is intrinsically impossible cannot be realized in external reality, nor can the mind conceive of it as actually existing externally. Rather, the conjunction of the two contraries is mentally postulated and then judged impossible in external reality, since it can neither be realized externally nor conceived in the mind, except by way of analogy, as when one says: “There may be a conjunction of