because of his agreement (1) with the Muʿtazilah in denying it and its necessary implications. For when they agreed with them that the proof adduced by the Muʿtazilah for the temporal origination of the universe was sound—namely, that a body is never devoid of (*motion or rest, and whatever is never free of the two has a temporal beginning, since a beginningless series of temporal events is impossible—they said: “It follows that every body has a temporal beginning; hence it is impossible for *) (2) the Creator to be a body, because He is eternal. It is also impossible for Him to occupy a direction, since only a body can occupy a direction (3). He therefore cannot face the beholder, because facing can occur only between two bodies (4).”

There is no doubt that the majority (5) of rational thinkers—both those who affirm the vision and those who deny it—say that this position is self-evidently false. Hence al-Rāzī states that every group within the Muslim community disagrees with them on this matter.

Yet they say to the person who denounces them: “We affirm the vision and deny direction, so what you have stated does not necessarily follow (6). If it is possible to see an object (7) that lies in no direction relative to the beholder, then our position is sound. If it is not possible, then we must be mistaken in one of the two issues: either in denying (8) the vision or in denying that Allah is distinct from His creation and above them.