Likewise, complete will, together with power, necessarily entails the existence of what is willed and lies within that power. He wills to create, and the act of creation occurs through His will and power. The act of creation then necessarily entails the existence of the created thing, even if that act of creation comes about through another cause and follows immediately upon it. This involves only the effect’s existence immediately after its fully operative cause, and an infinite succession of effects. Both are true, and Allah knows best.

As for the created thing, it can only be separate from Him; nothing created subsists in Him. Rather, will itself, together with power, entails the act of creation, just as it entails speech. The act of creation does not require another act of creation; rather, it requires that through which it occurs, namely, the preceding will. When He creates one thing, He wills to create another. Whatever He wills comes to pass, and whatever He does not will does not come to pass.

Those who say that the act of creation comes into being—such as the Hishāmiyyah and the Karrāmiyyah—say:

We affirm that temporally originated events subsist in Him. There is no evidence that this is invalid. Rather, reason and transmitted revelation—the Quran, the Sunnah, and the consensus of the early generations—establish its reality, as has been explained at length elsewhere.