A verbal noun may, however, be used to denote the object of the action, as in “a dirham of the ruler’s minting.” An example is His statement, “This is Allah’s creation,” meaning here: this is what Allah has created. The discussion is not about khalq (“creation”) in the sense of “a created thing,” but about khalq in the sense of the action itself, expressed by the verbal noun, as in khalaqa (“he created”), yakhluqu (“he creates”), khalqan (“creation”). Likewise, He says:

“Your creation and resurrection are only like those of a single soul.”

“He creates you in your mothers’ wombs, stage after stage of creation.”

“I did not make them witnesses to the creation of the heavens and the earth, nor to their own creation.”

Since creation is His action, it occurs by His will, for it is impossible for His action to occur without His will. Whatever occurs by His will cannot be beginningless in its individual instance, although its kind may be beginningless. Since the creation of anything that comes into being must have a complete cause necessitating its occurrence, it follows that He has always been characterized by voluntary acts subsisting in Him. Yet if it is established that another created thing existed before this one, it is thereby established that He is characterized by one act of creation after another. Likewise with speech: He speaks by His will.

It is impossible for Him to lack the attribute of speech and then acquire it, for two reasons:

First, this would deny His perfection, and speech is an attribute of perfection.

Second, it is impossible for this to come about. For one who lacks speech cannot