for one who has power to prefer one of two equivalent alternatives without any determining factor, as in the case of a hungry man faced with two loaves or a fugitive faced with two roads.”

The majority of rational people said:

“We know by necessity that if no complete determining factor exists in favor of one of two equivalent alternatives, preference is impossible. Otherwise, when they are equal in every respect, preference is impossible.”

[How the Mu'tazilah and Shi'ah’s Allowance of Preference without a Determining Factor Enabled the Philosophers to Maintain the Eternity of the World]

The philosophers made this (1) an argument for the eternity of the world. They said:

“Coming into existence without an originated cause is impossible. The world must therefore be eternal, proceeding from a cause that necessitates by virtue of its essence.”

They were more astray than the Mu'tazilah in several respects: their position entails that nothing could ever come into existence; it also implies that contingent beings have no agent, since action without bringing anything into existence is inconceivable; and (* their position ascribes to Allah [Most High] (2), in His essence, attributes, and acts, deficiencies that would take too long to describe (3); and *) (4) the world necessarily entails originated events, for such events are plainly witnessed. They must therefore either be inseparable [from it] (5) or originate within it. Yet a cause that necessitates by virtue of its essence and necessarily entails its effect cannot give rise to anything new. It would therefore follow that originated events have no agent whatsoever. They nevertheless allow for infinitely many originated events—as the majority of the adherents of hadith and Sunnah agree with them in this respect—and accordingly, there is nothing to preclude every [thing] (6) in the world from being originated.