this momentous foundational principle—when the Lord of the Worlds’ creation of His creatures is likened (1) to nonexistence being a cause of nonexistence (2)?

Is this not even more corrupt than the position of those whom Allah mentioned when He said:

{Then they and the deviators will be hurled headlong into it—together with all the forces of Iblīs—they will say as they quarrel therein—“By Allah, we were indeed in manifest error—when we equated you with the Lord of the Worlds.”}

[Surah al-Shu‘arā’: 94–98]

If this is the condition of one who equates (3) Him with some existing beings, then what of one who equates Him with sheer nonexistence?

[The Seventh Proof and the Response to It]

[Al-Rāzī] (4) said:

(The seventh proof: That which is necessarily existent in itself cannot be more than one. Therefore (5), of the attributes of the Necessary Existent—namely, those relational and negative notions according to the philosophers, and the attributes, states, and judgments according to the differing views of the theologians on the matter—not one is individually necessary in its existence (6). Rather, considered simply as what they are (7), they are intrinsically possible in their existence. (8) Yet their existence is necessary when considered in relation to the essence of the Necessary Existent. It is thus established that causal efficacy does not depend upon prior, antecedent nonexistence.)