Similarly, in cases where the object moves by a motion that is peculiar to it—for instance, when the ring is lying loose: if a man moves his hand, the ring catches on his hand and then moves—this motion takes place after the motion of the hand in time.

But when the ring is fixed to the finger and moves only as the fingers move, the mover of them all is one and the same. Even were the person asleep or dead and another person lifted his hand while the ring was on it, the ring would move with the hand; it is a single motion encompassing them all by virtue of their connectedness. Here there are not two distinct motions, one caused by the other, much less one acting as the agent of the other.

Hence, whoever says in such a case, “He moved his hand and his ring moved,” is simply saying, “The hand moved.” He means only that the motion spread to everything that was attached, not that the hand’s movement was the cause of a prior movement in the ring. We know of no rational person who speaks so while intending that meaning; and if such a person existed, his statement would carry no authority with other rational people. Likewise, when someone lifts the hand of a dead or sleeping man with a ring upon it, the motion of one part is not the cause of the motion of another; all of it occurs in a single moment, by one agent and one cause.

It is therefore invalid to claim that any cause in existence is simultaneous with its effect; a cause must precede its effect—how much more so if the agent is totally independent. What does coincide with a thing in time is only its concomitant condition (sharṭ). The priority of “one” to “two” belongs to this very category and not to that of a condition preceding what is conditioned. The ring’s motion with the hand is likewise a case of the conditioned together with its condition, not of an effect together with its agent—although the word “cause” (ʿillah) is itself ambiguous.

The same applies to sound in relation to motion: sound comes into being immediately after the motion, and at most is simultaneous with it in the way the second segment of a single motion adjoins the first. In a continuous motion, or in continuous time, the successive parts are not truly simultaneous; the most that can be said of sound alongside motion is of this nature. The ray that appears with the rising of the sun is similar: the sun is not the producer of the ray; rather, the ray comes into existence on earth when something facing the sun reflects it—and likewise, motion is not