If you say:

“My proof against these people is that every body is originated,” your brethren will reply: “Rather, in our view, body is divided into (1) two categories: eternal and originated—just as that which subsists by itself, that which exists (2), that which is living (3), knowing, and powerful are each divided into the eternal and the originated.”

If the one who denies corporeality says:

“Body cannot be free of temporal events, (* and whatever cannot be free of temporal events is itself originated,”

his brethren will reply:

“We do not concede that it cannot be free of (4) temporal events. Even if we conceded that, we would not concede that whatever cannot be free of temporal events is therefore originated.”

If (5) he says, “The proof that it cannot be free of temporal events *) (6) is that it cannot be free of accidents, and accidents are originated (7) [for an accident does not endure for two moments.

Many of the Kullābiyya relied upon this to establish the temporal origination of the universe. Al-Āmidī (8) likewise relied upon it, challenged every other proof, and stated that this was the method of the Asharīs.

Those who critically examined his argument deemed it weak and said:

“This would entail basing this momentous principle upon that weak premise.”] I have seen the words of al-Asharī himself,