Had it not been for the prophets, these people would indeed have been more intelligent than others. Yet it was the prophets who conveyed the truth, and remnants of that truth have remained among the nations—even when they denied portions of it. Even the Arab idolaters retained traces of Abraham’s religion, and by virtue of those traces they were better than the pagan philosophers who follow Aristotle and the like in their basic principles.
Sixth Argument: Demonstrative proof does not yield universal, abiding realities within contingent beings.
If what their demonstrative syllogism seeks is knowledge of contingent existents, then none of those existents enjoys necessary permanence in a single state from pre-eternity to infinity; they are all liable to change and transformation. Even where something is judged inseparable from its subject, the subject itself is not necessarily permanent. Accordingly, knowing such a thing is not knowledge of a being that is necessary in existence.
They have no sound proof for the eternal pre-existence of any part of the universe, as has been detailed elsewhere. At most, their arguments imply only the perpetual continuation of the species of agency, of matter, and of duration—that is, one individual after another of that species coming into existence endlessly—while still affirming, as clear reason and authentic revelation require, that every particular effect is originated and preceded by non-existence. To claim that a specific effect accompanies its agent from all eternity is something that plain reason declares impossible, whatever the nature of the agent—especially when the agent acts by choice, as is established by decisive proofs, not by the arguments advanced by those lacking in the fundamentals of knowledge and religion, such as Fakhr al-Rāzī and the like, as has been explained elsewhere.
As for their assertion that the effect is concomitant with its cause: if by “cause” they mean the one that brings the effect into being, this is patently false according to clear reason. Every sound innate disposition, unspoiled by false imitation, acknowledges this. Because this truth is embedded in human nature, admitting that He is the Creator of every thing necessarily entails that all else is originated and preceded by non-existence.
Even if one posits the perpetual exercise of creatorship—one creature after another—this does not conflict with His being the Creator of all things