of the determinate. Thus, whatever does not exist as a determinate entity cannot be conceived either determinately or universally; rather, it is merely posited in the mind, just as impossible things are posited.

This is shown by the fact that knowledge that something is possible in external reality comes through knowledge of its existence, or of the existence of something than which it has an even stronger claim to existence. This is how Allah establishes in His Book the possibility of resurrection, as in His saying:

{The creation of the heavens and the earth is surely greater than the creation of humankind.}

[Surah Ghāfir: 57]

And His saying:

{He is the One who originates creation and then brings it back, and that is easier for Him.}

[Surah al-Rūm: 27]

And His saying:

{Was he not a drop of emitted semen? Then he became a clinging clot, whereupon He created and fashioned him, and made from him the two sexes, male and female. Is not such a One able to give life to the dead?}

[Surah al-Qiyāma: 37, 40]

(1)

And His saying:

{Do they not see that Allah, who created the heavens and the earth and did not tire in creating them, is able to give life to the dead? Yes indeed! He is powerful over all things.}

[Surah al-Ahqāf: 33]

And His saying:

{He sets forth for Us an example and forgets his own creation.}

[Surah Yā Sīn: 78]

down to His saying:

{Is not He who created the heavens and the earth able to create the like of them? Yes indeed!}

[Surah Yā Sīn: 81]

And similar passages indicate that bringing creation back is even more evidently possible than originating it, and that creating something small is even more evidently possible than creating something immense. As for something that, when presented to the mind, is not (2) known to be possible, though neither is its impossibility known, its possibility is merely mental—in the sense that its impossibility is not known—not external, in the sense that its possibility in external reality is known.

For this reason, what a group of speculative thinkers—such as al-Āmidī and others—advances when one of them wishes to establish