binding upon us. For if events cannot arise from an eternal, fully sufficient cause—and you recognize nothing but an eternal, fully sufficient cause—it follows that events have no originator.

As for us, if we follow the path of the early generations of this community and its leading scholars, we say to these philosophers:

Rather, Allah created the heavens and the earth in six days, as the messengers reported. They came into being through causes that had arisen before that. If we say that He has always spoken whenever He wills—and that

“His command, when He wills a thing, is only to say to it, ‘Be,’ and it is”—

then whatever comes into being does so through whatever of His speech He wills to utter, especially if an analogous position is held regarding His will—glorified and exalted is He.

We can also offer the philosophers another answer, combining our position with yours. We say to them: Is the existence of a succession of events without a beginning possible or impossible?

If you say it is impossible, you must acknowledge that the world came into being, and it then becomes possible that the position of the Karrāmiyyah and others like them is correct.

If you say it is possible, the reply is: Then it is possible that this world came into being through a cause that arose before it, and likewise that this cause arose through another, and so on without end.

These matters are discussed at length elsewhere. The “purpose here” is to draw attention to the fact that these are subtle and difficult matters