is ordered in a conceptual sequence, as essence is conceptually prior to attributes and an effect is ordered after its cause. This is the position of the philosophers who hold that the world is eternal, for they said:
“The Lord is prior to the world in His essence and reality, but He is not temporally prior to it.”
They spoke of some parts of His speech preceding others in the same way that those philosophers spoke of His precedence over His effect.
These people divide precedence, posteriority, and sequence into two kinds: conceptual and actual. They claim that the sequence, precedence, and posteriority they affirm are conceptual, not actual.
Most rational thinkers, however, reject this and say:
“The falsity of their position is self-evident. Sequence, precedence, and posteriority can only be understood as one thing existing after another; a thing cannot coexist with another and yet be posterior to it (1)—as when they say, ‘The effect can only come after the cause, yet it can only coexist with it.’”
These matters have been discussed elsewhere [at considerable length, but only what was feasible has been mentioned here] (2).
The point is that this method (3) of speculative theology—which the Jahmiyya and Muʿtazila introduced as an innovation, and which the early generations and imams of the Muslim community rejected—has come to be regarded by many later speculative thinkers (4) as the very religion of Islam. Indeed, (5) they believe that anyone who opposes it has opposed the religion of Islam, even though the teachings and proof it contains were never articulated by any verse in Allah’s Book, any report from the Messenger of Allah—Allah’s blessings and peace be upon him—or anyone among the Companions and those who followed [them