not having been one, and that the effect of a complete cause cannot lag behind it—they supposed that, by refuting this position, they had secured their claim concerning “the beginninglessness of the world,” including the celestial spheres, generated things as a kind, and the matter of the elements. They fell into profound error, contradicting clear reason and rejecting the testimony of every messenger. For the messengers unanimously affirm that everything other than Allah is originated and created, coming into existence after not having existed; that nothing alongside Allah is beginningless as He is; and that He created the heavens, the earth, and everything between them in six days.

Sound reason recognizes that originated events must have an originator. If there were nothing but an eternal, beginningless cause necessarily entailing its effect, no originated events would exist in the world. For it is impossible for an originated event to arise from an eternal, beginningless cause necessarily entailing its effect. If its effect were inseparable from it, that effect would be beginningless along with it, never coming after it. Thus, none of these events would have a cause necessitating its occurrence, and all originated events would have arisen without an originator. These men fled from the notion that an agent endowed with power should originate them without a newly arising cause, only to hold that they arise without any originator whatsoever, whether endowed with power or not. What they fled to was therefore worse than what they fled from, and they were worse than someone seeking refuge from scorching ground in fire.

These men believed that a particular thing brought about, fashioned, and originated—such as a celestial sphere—coexists with its agent without beginning or end: the agent does not precede it in time. The others said: “Rather, the effect of a complete cause is delayed, then comes into existence without any cause necessitating its occurrence.” The former established clear rational proofs refuting this, just as the latter established clear rational proofs