alone—either letters arranged in sequence or letters and sounds; nevertheless, he holds that its meaning is eternal.

As for “the second group,” who held, without qualification, that originated events may have no beginning, and that what is eternal and necessary in itself may undergo successive originated events without qualification, even if it is contingent rather than necessary in itself—these are the proponents of the eternity of the world. They hold that the celestial spheres are eternal and that they have always been, and will always remain, effects of an eternal, beginningless cause. Those among them who affiliate themselves with religious traditions, such as Ibn Sīnā and others, maintain that the spheres emanate from that which is necessary in itself and which, by its very essence, necessitates their existence.

Aristotle and his followers, however, maintained that the spheres have a final cause, which they seek to resemble through their motion, just as the beloved moves the lover. They did not affirm an originator that necessitates their existence, nor a self-subsisting cause that necessitates it. Nor did they say that the celestial sphere is contingent in itself and necessary through another. Rather, according to them, the celestial sphere is necessary in itself. Yet they also maintained that it has a final cause, which it seeks to resemble through its motion, and without which it cannot subsist. Thus, they made what is necessary in itself and has no agent dependent upon a final cause separate from it. This is the true substance of the position of Aristotle and his followers.

For this reason, they did not affirm that the First knows anything other than itself, since, according to them, the First did not originate the celestial sphere. For an originator must know what it brings into being, as Allah says:

“Does He who created not know, when He is the Most Subtle, the All-Aware?”

Thus, their views on theology were among the most unsound of all views, unlike their views on natural philosophy. Hence, their position was more unsound, both rationally and religiously