are eternal. Abū al-Husayn(1) claimed that the state of being knowing is a state(2) caused by the essence. Although these thinkers refrain from applying the term “eternal” to these states, they nevertheless disguise the meaning(3) in reality.”

In reply, it may be said:

None of the theologians maintains that an effect may be eternal, regardless of whether the agent acts by His will or is assumed to act by His essence without will.

As for attributes inseparable from that which possesses them, if they are said to be eternal, no rational person considers them effects. Rather, they are inseparable from the essence, unlike contingent effects that are distinct from the agent. It is this kind of effect whose eternity the great majority of rational people have denounced. The theologians and the rest of the great majority of rational people agree that an effect cannot be eternal, even if the agent is assumed to act by nature, as natural bodies do. Thus, what he attributed to the theologians does not necessarily follow from their position.

He then said(4): “As for the philosophers, they allowed the eternal world to be ascribed to the Creator only because, in their view(5), He is a cause that necessarily produces its effect by virtue of His essence. Had they believed Him to be an agent who acts by choice, they would not have allowed Him to be the necessitating cause(6) of the eternal world.”