“takwīn” (bringing into being).

This is also the position of the Karrāmiyyah, the Hishāmiyyah, and similar groups, as well as the early followers of Mālik, al-Shāfiʿī, and Ahmad. It is also the later of al-Qādī Abū Yaʿlā’s two positions.

Now, if it is said that the act of creation is distinct from the created thing and subsists in the Lord, is it a beginningless act of creation inseparable from the Lord’s essence, even though created things have a beginning, as the followers of Abū Hanīfah and others maintain? Or is it an act of creation that originated in His essence when the genus of created things originated? Or is it one act of creation after another? There are three views. One or the other of these views is held by the imams of the Sunnah and hadith and the majority of their scholars. It is also the position of groups among the speculative theologians, including the Karrāmiyyah, the Hishāmiyyah, and others. Thus, whoever says, “He speaks by His will and choice, with speech that subsists in His essence,” can say, “He acts by His choice and will, with an act that subsists in His essence.”

Among those who affirm that matters subject to His choice subsist in His essence, some accept the argument from accidents as valid, along with its use to establish that bodies have a beginning. These include the Karrāmiyyah and later Hanafi, Māliki, Hanbali, and Shāfiʿī scholars. Others do not accept it as valid, such as the imams of the early Muslim generations and the imams of the Sunnah and hadith, including Ahmad ibn Hanbal, al-Bukhārī, and others.