after the material that has turned into fire, such as wood or oil, has been consumed. Thus, fire is generated only from material, just as animals are generated only from material.
Section
The point is that whenever the term “generation” is applied to independently subsisting entities, it necessarily involves two sources and the separation of a part from the source.
When satiety and the quenching of thirst are described as generated, or when the departure of the soul and similar accidents are so described, every use of this term necessarily involves two sources. An accident, however, requires a subject in which to subsist; it does not require material that turns into an accident. Bodies, by contrast, are created only from materials that turn into bodies, changing into another kind—as when semen turns into a clinging clot, then a lump of flesh, and in other instances of the creation of animals and plants.
As for what comes from a single source, such as Eve’s creation from Adam’s shortest rib, although she was created from material taken from Adam, this is not called generation. This is why it is not said that Adam begot Eve, nor that he is Eve’s father. Rather, Allah created Eve from Adam, just as He created Adam from clay.