through a beginningless act of creation, by a beginningless will. It is known that this is false. Hence, all those who say, “The Quran is beginningless,” say that He spoke independently of His will and power. A willed effect must therefore have a beginning, and likewise a willed act must have a beginning.

Moreover, those who dispute with them say:

Will entails what is willed, and creation entails what is created. The foregoing argument applies against both groups, for will and creation are relational in nature: the existence of will without something willed, or creation without something created, is impossible.

But the disputant says:

Will and creation exist, while the willed, created thing comes later.

These people are then told: You say that will exists—or that creation exists together with will—while neither what is willed nor what is created exists. Then, after an infinite span of hypothetical time, the willed, created thing comes into existence without any cause. This is false by the most elementary dictates of reason. For will or creation already existed together with power. If this constituted a complete cause, it would entail the existence of the effect, and the effect would necessarily exist when the complete cause existed. For the effect is “contingent,” and a contingent thing must exist upon the existence of the determining factor