356—Al-Husayn ibn Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Tabari informed us: Muhammad ibn Bundar and Muhammad ibn Ishaq ibn Mubashshir al-Tabari related to us; they said: Abu Nu‘aym al-Istarabadi related to us. He said: I said to al-Rabi‘, “Did you hear al-Buwayti say: ‘Allah created everything only through “Be.” If “Be” were created, then a created thing would have created another created thing’?”

He said: Al-Rabi‘ then related it as he had said. I said: “This is the meaning of what the scholars today express: if this first ‘Be’ were created, it would itself have been created by another ‘Be.’ This leads to an infinite regress, and it is an impossible assertion.”