anything else. It only indicates that He has always been active. If (1) it is posited that He continually performs actions that subsist in Himself or brings about temporally originated effects one after another, this satisfies what the argument requires, while affirming that everything other than Allah came into existence [was created] (2) after not existing, [as the Messengers informed us that Allah is the Creator of all things] (3), even if their kind has never ceased to be renewed. The same applies to future events: each one is temporally originated [created] (4), and they continue to occur one after another.

They said:

Allah has (5) informed us that He created the heavens, the earth, and all that lies between them in six days, and then rose over the Throne. He has also informed us that He is the Creator of all things, and a created thing must necessarily be preceded [by nonexistence] (6). The Quran therefore shows that every (7) thing other than Allah is created, brought into being, and temporally originated.

Accordingly, no existing thing is coexistent with Allah Most High, contrary to what the [eternalist] (8) philosophers maintain: that the universe is His effect; that He necessarily produces it and causes it to emanate; and that He is prior (9) to it in rank, causality (10), and nature, but not in time. For if He were