Moreover, what (1) they assert—namely, that a cause precedes its effect in essence but not in time—is neither intelligible nor found to occur (2), except in the case of a condition, for a condition may coexist with that which it conditions. As for a cause that consists of an agent’s act of producing the effect, it is inconceivable (3) that such a cause should coexist with its effect in time.

They illustrate a cause’s precedence over its effect in essence but not in time by the movement of the hand preceding the movement of a ring, by movement preceding sound (4), and by other such examples. Yet everything they cite as an example is either a condition rather than an agent, or else it precedes in time. An agent that does not precede its effect is utterly inconceivable (5).

This is not the place to expound [these] (6) matters, for they are the most misguided doctrines (7) held by the people of the earth. They have been discussed at length elsewhere (8).

The purpose here is to draw attention to the foundational doctrine of the Qadariyya. Their position amounts to saying that the acts of living beings arise without an agent, just as the foundational doctrine of the eternalist philosophers (9) is that the motion of the celestial sphere and all temporal events arise (10) without any newly occurring cause. The same applies to those who concurred with