And whenever an act occurred, it had already been possible before then. If it was possible, what necessitated singling out that moment for creation rather than any moment preceding it in the infinite past?

Moreover, beginningless eternity means the absence of a beginning; it is not something bounded. Saying, “He has always possessed power,” is equivalent to saying, “He possesses power perpetually.” His possession of power is a perpetual attribute without a beginning. Likewise, saying, “He has always spoken whenever He willed, and has always done whatever He willed,” entails that He perpetually speaks and acts by His will and power. If someone imagines that this entails something else being eternal alongside Him, that stems from his faulty conception. Since He is the Creator of everything, everything other than Him is created and preceded by nonexistence. Nothing alongside Him is coeternal with Him.

When it is said, “He has always created,” this means that He has always created one creature after another, just as He will continue throughout the endless future to create one creature after another. We negate whatever we negate of events and motions, one after another. This merely describes Him as perpetually acting, not as having any particular product of His action eternally alongside Him.

If it is supposed that their kind has always existed with Him, neither revelation nor reason negates this coexistence. Rather, it belongs to His perfection. The Most High says:

“Is He who creates like one who does not create? Will you not then take heed?”

Created beings will continue to exist with Him, and their continuing to exist with Him in the future does not conflict with His perfection. And between beginningless eternity, in the future, although in the past it came into being after not existing—for every created thing has a beginning, while we do not assert definitively that it has an end.