of either is originated, because beginningless temporal events are impossible. This is the furthest extent of what the Mu‘tazila and their Shia followers have to offer.
Those people replied:
“We do not concede that a body cannot be devoid of motion and rest [as two positive states] (1). Rather, it may be devoid of motion, for rest is the absence of motion [absolutely (2), and the absence of motion] (3) in something naturally capable of receiving it. It is therefore possible to affirm (4) an eternal, resting body that does not move.”
They also said to them (5): “We do not concede that beginningless temporal events are impossible.” They raised the well-known objections against the proofs adduced to deny this. Even the most astute later scholars (6), such as al-Rāzī, Abū al-Hasan al-Āmidī, Abū al-Thanā al-Urmawī (7), and others, criticized this (* in its entirety; al-Rāzī criticized it in some places, although he relied upon it *) (8) in
(1) “As two positive states” is omitted from (ن) and (م).
(2) (ب) and (أ) read: “the absence of motion, either absolutely.”
(3) The passage between square brackets is omitted from (ن) and (م).
(4) (ن) and (م) read “affirmation.”
(5) (ب), (أ), (ن), and (م) read: “Or they said to them.”
(6) (ب) and (أ) read “the Muslims.”
(7) Abū al-Thanā Sirāj al-Dīn Mahmūd ibn Abī Bakr Ahmad al-Urmawī was the author of *al-Tahsīl*, an abridgment of *al-Mahsūl fī Usūl al-Fiqh*; *al-Lubāb*, an abridgment of *al-Arba‘īn fī Usūl al-Dīn*; *al-Bayān*; *al-Matāli‘ fī al-Mantiq*; and other works. It is also said that he wrote a commentary on al-Rāfi‘ī’s *al-Wajīz* in jurisprudence. Al-Urmawī was a Shāfi‘ī who studied in Mosul under Kamāl al-Dīn ibn Yūnus. He was born in 594 AH and died in Konya in 682 AH. See his biography in *Tabaqāt al-Shāfi‘iyya*, 8/371; Tash Kubrā Zādah, *Miftāh al-Sa‘āda wa-Misbāh al-Siyāda*, 1/245, Hyderabad edition; and *al-A‘lām*, 8/41–42. Ibn Taymiyya states in *Dar’ Ta‘ārud al-‘Aql wa-al-Naql*, 1/323, that al-Urmawī, the author of *Lubāb al-Arba‘īn*, objected to al-Rāzī’s rejection of beginningless temporal events. A photographic copy of *Lubāb al-Arba‘īn fī Usūl al-Dīn* is held at the Arab League’s Institute of Manuscripts under no. 201, Tawhīd.
(8) The passage between the asterisks is omitted from (ب) and (أ).