And the implication is that everything that exists came into existence and is contingent, and that nothing in existence is eternal or necessary in itself. Thus, their principles contradict the conclusion they seek to establish. This approach misleads rather than guides. But it is as Allah Most High says:

“And whoever turns away from the remembrance of the Most Merciful, We appoint for him a devil who becomes his companion.”

“And indeed, they turn them away from the path, while they think they are rightly guided.”

As for those who say, “We affirm the Maker and Creator,” and maintain that they follow another approach, such as inferring the Lord’s existence from attributes coming into existence—this does indeed point to Him without requiring the commitments made by the others. Al-Rāzī mentioned this approach. Al-Ashʿarī himself, however, did not use it. Rather, in al-Lumaʿ and his Epistle to al-Thaghr, he inferred from events that the things in which they inhere came into existence, as in his discussion of the sperm-drop, on the premise that a beginningless sequence of events is impossible. He then took the coming into existence of those substances—which he said he had demonstrated—as proof of the Maker’s existence. This approach is invalid, as has already been explained. The other approach, however, is sound, but they undermined it by holding that