eternal as a particular entity, all agree that He did not speak by His will and power, whether they say that it is a single meaning subsisting in His essence, or that it consists of letters, or of letters and sounds that are themselves eternal and beginningless.

This stands in contrast to the imams of the Salaf, who said that He speaks by His will and power and that He has never ceased to speak whenever and however He wills, (1 for they maintain that speech is eternal in kind, that Allah’s words have no end, and that He has never ceased speaking by His will and power—speaking however He wills, whenever He wills 1) (1), and other similar formulations. It also stands in contrast to those who say that He speaks by His will and power, but that His speech comes into being by virtue of something else (2) and subsists (3) in His essence, or that it is created and separate from Him; according to them, it cannot be eternal.

Thus, all groups agree that a particular entity which is eternal and beginningless cannot be an object of power and will. This is unlike that whose kind has always existed, one thing after another. Regarding the latter, the imams of the Salaf and the adherents of the Sunnah and hadith maintain that it comes about by His will and power. The same is maintained by most of the leading philosophers who hold that the celestial spheres and other things originated, as well as by Aristotle and his followers, who hold that the spheres are eternal.

The leading authorities of the religious communities and the leading philosophers thus maintain that the celestial spheres originated and came into existence after not having existed, while also maintaining that the kind of things subject to power and will has always existed, one thing after another.

Many speculative theologians, however, say that whatever is subject to power and will cannot—