and for affirming that it must be eternal. Yet according to their own doctrine, they have no proof for this (1). At most, this entails that the Lord Most High has always exercised His agency; it does not prove (2) the eternity of the celestial sphere or of any other particular entity in the world.

They, however, said: “This entails an infinite regress, [and an infinite regress is impossible] (3).”

What they mean is an infinite regress in the completion of causal efficacy, as previously explained. As for an infinite succession of effects, that is their own position.

We have already mentioned that the impossible infinite regress (4) here is of the same kind as impossible circularity (5). For if it is said, “He does not bring about (6) this originated event until there comes into being that by virtue of which He becomes its agent (7), while that itself comes into being together with the event—and likewise with the second,” this becomes an infinite regress in the completion of causal efficacy (8). If it is said, “He does not bring anything into being until He brings something into being,” this constitutes impossible circularity. Thus, it is an infinite regress when the discussion of originated events is left general, but circularity (9) when a particular originated event is specified.

This (10) is a dialectical argument binding upon those theologians among the Jahmiyya and the Qadariyya, those who followed them among the Ashʿariyya, the Muʿtazila, and the Karrāmiyya, and the jurists and others who agreed with them,