The view held by the vast majority—and by the affirmationist theologians and those who identify with the Sunnah and the community—is that, before it exists, the nonexistent is nothing at all outside the mind: neither a thing, nor an entity, nor a distinct reality. Nor are there two things outside the mind, one being its essential reality and the other its existence, additional to that reality. Allah brought the entities themselves—that is, their essences—into being. Everything other than Him, glorified and exalted is He, is created, made, brought into being, and originated by Him.

Among those who hold this view, however, some say that the nonexistent is not a thing at all, and that it is called a thing only because it is established in knowledge; the designation is therefore figurative. Others say that it undoubtedly has an established reality and an existence in knowledge, and that, in respect of this reality and existence, it is a thing and an entity.

These people do not distinguish between existence and being established, as those who say that the nonexistent is a thing do. Nor, in holding that the nonexistent is not a thing, do they distinguish between the possible and the impossible, as the latter do. They all agree that the impossible is not a thing; their disagreement concerns only the possible. The principal argument of those who regard it as a thing is simply that it is established in knowledge. In this respect, it can properly be singled out as something intended, created, spoken of, commanded, prohibited, and so forth.

They say that such specific relations cannot pertain to sheer nonexistence. If, then, the distinction is drawn specifically between existence as concrete reality and existence as reality in knowledge, the confusion in this matter disappears.