They also said to these people: Your assertion, “He is a complete cause in beginningless eternity,” is ambiguous. It may mean universal causal efficacy extending to everything; causal efficacy in an unrestricted sense, producing one thing after another; or causal efficacy directed at one particular thing to the exclusion of others.

If you mean “the first,” it follows that nothing new can occur in the world, which contradicts observation. If you mean “the second,” it follows that everything other than Allah is created and originated, coming into existence after not having existed, while the Lord has always spoken by His will and done whatever He wills. This contradicts your position and entails that everything other than Him is created. It accords with what the messengers taught, and sound reason points to it. Thus it becomes clear that sound reason agrees with what the prophets taught.

If you mean “the third,” your position is invalid, because it entails that He wills them to come into existence after not having acted to produce them, without any new cause arising to necessitate their origination. This contradicts your position. If this is sound, then He could bring everything into existence after not having brought anything into existence. If it is not sound, the claim collapses. Your position is therefore false on either supposition.

Your position amounts to saying that a complete cause can exist only simultaneously with its effect, and that an effect can exist only simultaneously with its complete cause. It then follows from your position that nothing can come into existence; that everything which has come into existence has done so without a cause; and that any distinction between one effect and another is invalid. You cannot say that some effects are simultaneous with the complete cause while others arise later.