perception, in their view, like hearing and sight, relates only to what exists; and they say: He came to will after not having willed. *) (1) As for the Baghdadis, although they deny perception and will, they say (2): He became an agent after not having been one.
They say: This amounts to affirming that predicates and states newly arise for Him.
For this reason, it has been said: This issue is inescapable for all schools, even the philosophers. More than one of their leading early figures and eminent later thinkers upheld it. It is said (3) that [the leading figures] (4) who lived before Aristotle—or many of them (5)—upheld it. Abū al-Barakāt, author of al-Mu'tabar, and others also upheld it. It is likewise the position of groups among the theologians, including the Murji'a, the Shia (6), the Karrāmiyya, and others, such as Abū Mu'ādh al-Tūmanī (7) and the two Hishāms.
As for the majority of Ahl al-Sunnah and the hadith scholars, they affirm it or its meaning, although some of them choose only (8) to use scriptural expressions, while others express