[and the heavens] (1)—are coeternal with Allah, and Allah has eternally been their progenitor. Thus, even as they say that Allah begot them, they also say that they have always existed with Him. This is inconceivable both in the case of offspring and in the case of an act. Their doctrine therefore conflicts in every respect with what rational minds recognize. The crux of the matter is that they combine contradictories: they affirm action, production, and origination (2) without origination, production, or action.

What they say concerning the Lord’s action is like what they say concerning His essence and attributes. They affirm a Necessary Existent (3), yet describe Him in terms that entail His being impossible of existence. They affirm His attributes, yet make claims about them that entail negating His attributes. Thus, in their statements they continually combine contradictories. This is because, at root, they are thoroughgoing negationists; nevertheless, they adopted a kind of affirmation and sought to combine affirmation with negation, so contradiction became inescapable for them.

For this reason, they refuse to describe Him through either negation or affirmation (4). Some of them say: “Neither ‘He is existent’ (5 nor ‘He is nonexistent,’ ‘He is living,’ nor ‘He is dead’ may be said.” They may also say: “It is not to be said, ‘He is existent,’ nor is it to be said 5): (5) ‘He is not existent’; nor is it to be said, ‘He is living’; nor is it to be said, ‘He is not living’ (6).” They thereby deny both contradictory alternatives together, or else refrain from affirming either of them. Yet denying both contradictories is impossible, just as affirming both together is impossible. Refraining from affirming either of two contradictories is to withhold both negation and affirmation,