Others held: “Rather, they occur one after another.” This is the position of many leading authorities of hadith and Sunnah, as well as leading philosophers.

As for an infinite regress, some did not accept it and said: “Just as you deem it possible for beginningless temporal events to exist separately from Him, so too it is possible for beginningless temporal events to subsist in His essence.” This is the position of many of the Karrāmiyya, the Murjia, the Hishāmiyya, and others.

Others held: “Rather, an infinite regress is possible among effects but not among causes.” They maintained that an infinite succession of things subsists in His essence, one after another, and said: “He has never ceased speaking by His will, and there is no end to His words.” This is the position of the leading authorities of hadith and many speculative theologians.

The discussion of voluntary acts subsisting in His essence has been set out at length elsewhere.

(1 This, then, is the position of the Mutazila and the Shia who agree with them. It is false, for an attribute of God need not itself be a god, just as an attribute of a prophet need not itself be a prophet. 1)

(1).