as disbelievers, as is held by some among the Kullābiyyah, the scholars of hadith, the jurists, and the Sufis. Their position therefore does not entail an infinite regress on account of temporal events inhering in Him. However, the majority oppose them concerning the wise purpose He loves, just as they oppose them concerning His will.

They say to them: “If His will is beginningless and has always existed, and its relation to all times and temporal events is the same, then singling out one time rather than another for something to come into being, and one effect rather than another, is a selection without a determining factor.”

The former reply: “It is the nature of will to select.”

Their opponents say to them: “Selection in general belongs to its nature. But selecting this particular thing over that particular thing is not something necessarily entailed by will. Rather, there must be a cause that necessitates one of the two being willed rather than the other. A person finds within himself that he selects through his will, but he knows that he wills this rather than that only because of a reason that calls for this selection. Otherwise, if all the possible objects of will were equal in every respect, it would be impossible for the will to single out one rather than its counterparts, for that would be preference without a deciding factor. Once this is admitted as possible, the way to establishing the existence of the Maker is closed.”

They say: “Anyone who reflects on this and examines it thoroughly will recognize its truth. Only someone who blindly follows another’s statement without considering its reality disputes it.”

Likewise, the majority say to them: “If Allah Most High, in His beginningless eternity, is pleased with, loves, and rejoices in what He brings into being, even before He brings it into being, then, when He does bring it into being, does doing so realize a wise purpose that He loves, is pleased with, and rejoices in? Or has nothing come about beyond what existed in beginningless eternity? If you say, ‘Nothing has come about beyond what existed in