and says that there is no proof that the latter is impossible, as maintained by groups among both the early and later scholars of kalām and hadith. Whoever holds that events must have a beginning says of the coming into being of the reason what he says of the coming into being of the effect, since there is no difference between them in this respect.

Among the answers that exhaust the possibilities is the following:

Allah’s act of creation either may or may not be explained in terms of a reason. If it may not, this is the first formulation. On this assumption, it is not called pointless. If someone does call it pointless, that designation does not undermine what has been established. For our discussion assumes that explaining it in terms of a reason is impossible. If that is impossible, this conclusion must be affirmed, whatever anyone may call it.

If, however, it may be explained in terms of a reason, then either it may be explained by a reason that comes into being, or it may not. If it is said that this is not possible, it follows that the reason is eternal, while on this assumption the effect cannot be eternal. For we are discussing the supposition that an effect which comes into being may be explained by an eternal reason. If it is said that it may be explained by a reason that comes into being, that position can be maintained.

Then it may be said that events may be explained by a finite reason belonging to the agent, so that it does not follow that something which comes into being subsists in Him—something that must subsist in Him for a wise purpose, even though that purpose is within His power and intended by Him. If the former is maintained, it follows that the reason which comes into being is separate from Him. On this basis, it also follows that the agent brings events into being after they did not exist, for a reason that comes into being in something other than Him, without any cause coming into being that necessitates the first event, and without anything that comes into being subsisting in the originator.

But if it is said: “Rather, it is not possible to