—al-Rāzī and others, for example—and thus remain bewildered over this fundamental principle, one of the greatest foundations of knowledge, religion, and speculative theology. We have discussed this at length elsewhere and explained that a third view is correct: the view held by the leading scholars. It is that the complete exercise of causal influence necessarily entails the existence of its effect immediately afterward, neither simultaneously with it nor after a delay. Those speculative theologians who maintain that there is a delay are mistaken, while those who maintain simultaneity, such as the philosophers, are even more mistaken. Their position entails impossibilities that we have explained elsewhere.

This third view is supported by both revelation and reason. Allah Most High says:

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

People of sound reason say, “I cut it, and it was severed; I broke it, and it broke,” and, “He divorced the woman, and she became divorced; he emancipated the slave, and he became free.” Thus, emancipation and divorce take effect immediately after the acts of emancipation and divorce: the effect is neither delayed nor simultaneous. The same applies to becoming broken or severed in relation to the acts of breaking and cutting.

This helps explain that, when the act of creation occurs, the created thing must exist immediately afterward. Thus one says, “Allah brought the thing into being, and it came into being.” Its coming into being follows immediately upon Allah’s bringing it into being, neither simultaneously with that act nor after a delay.