is a self-evident proposition, without recognizing its ambiguity. Others recognized the distinction between what does not precede a finite, bounded series of temporal events and what precedes the class of temporal events occurring one after another. The former is necessarily temporally originated, because those events have a definite beginning; whatever does not precede them must exist either alongside them or after them, and in either case it is temporally originated.

As for temporal events occurring one after another, people have disagreed about this. Some have held that such a succession is impossible in both the past and the future, as was the position of Jahm and Abū al-Hudhayl. Jahm therefore maintained that Paradise and Hellfire would cease to exist, while Abū al-Hudhayl maintained that the movements of their inhabitants would cease. Others have held that it is possible in the future but not in the past, because the past has come into existence, whereas the future has not. This is the position of many groups of speculative thinkers.

Still others have held that it is possible in both the past and the future. This is the position of the leading authorities of the religious communities and the imams of the Sunnah, such as ‘Abd Allāh ibn al-Mubārak, Ahmad ibn Hanbal, and others who maintain that Allah has always spoken whenever He wills, that His words have no end and subsist in His essence, and that He speaks by His will and power.

This is also the position of the leading philosophers. Aristotle and his followers, however, make this claim concerning the motions of the celestial sphere, which they hold to be beginninglessly eternal. In this they opposed the majority of philosophers, as well as the prophets, the messengers, and the great majority of rational people. For these all agree that Allah created the heavens and the earth; indeed, He is the Creator of everything, and everything other than Allah is created and temporally originated, coming into existence after not having existed. They also agree that it is Allah Most High who is beginninglessly eternal, together with His attributes of