and your leading scholars have acknowledged that most schools are committed to this position.”

Your opponents also tell you: “Both scriptural and rational proofs establish this principle.”

The “third group” says to you: “Granted that they originate in time: is it their individual instances that originate in time, or their kind?”

If you say, “Each individual instance originates in time,” this does not help you. If you say, “Rather, their kind originates in time, because an infinite succession of temporal events is impossible,” you are told:

“The majority of the people of hadith, together with the majority of philosophers, dispute this with you. So do the leading authorities of religious communities and doctrinal schools: the leading authorities among the followers of the Torah, the Gospel, and the Quran, and those among the Sabians, philosophers, Magians, and others. This position was introduced into Islam only by a group of speculative theologians whom the imams of the religion and the eminent scholars of the Muslims condemned. It is not established by the Quran, the Sunnah, or consensus, nor was it professed by any of the early generations or the imams. It is merely an innovated position whose originator claims that reason establishes it, and that it establishes the temporal origination of the world and knowledge of the Maker’s existence.”

These opponents tell him: “Reason establishes the opposite; indeed, this position is incompatible with, and contrary to, the temporal origination of the world and the establishment of the Maker’s existence.”

This has been discussed at length in its proper place. The purpose here is only to draw attention to the points of disagreement and agreement contained in this discussion.