Qalāʾid al-ʿIqyān 10: On Divine Action and the Origin of Creation

And jumping right into it, the Imam, he says, كل شيء سوى الله وصفاته حادث والله سبحانه وتعالى خلقه وأوجده وابتدأه من العدم لا لإلة ولا لغرض ولا لداع ولا لحاجة ولا لموجب وَلَا تَجِبُ رِعَايَةُ ذَلِكَ فِي شَيْءٍ مِنْ أَفْعَالِهِ سُبْحَانَهُ وَالتَّعَالَى وَلَا يَفْعَالْ سُبْحَانَهُ شَيْءً عَبَثًا فَلَا خَالِقَ لِجِسْبٍ وَلَا جَوْهَرٍ وَلَا عَرَضٍ وَلَا شَيْءٍ إِلَّا هُوَ سُبْحَانَهُ وَالتَّعَالَى Okay, so this opens up the chapter and this is the only section we're going to look at in our class which will inshallah frame the sections to come.

If we marinate with this for a bit it'll help us absorb the next passages and as we'll find out in the coming lecture that these passages or this topic I should say is one in which A multitude have, I should say, their footing, they've lost their footing or they lost their footing on the topic.

However, let's see here.

He says everything besides Allah and His attributes is originated.

Hadith here originated, it's synonymous with created.

In the world, in the humbly world, the word hadith is synonymous with created.

So everything besides Allah and His attributes is originated or created.

Allah glorified and exalted, created it, brought it into existence and originated it from non-existence, not due to any cause, purpose, motive, need or obligating factor.

None of that is binding in any of His acts glorified and exalted as He.

He glorified as He does not do anything in vain.

There is no creator of any body.

That's a jism.

Independent substance, a johar.

Contingent property, adalv.

And we've discussed these terms in previous sessions.

Or anything whatsoever except him glorified and exalted is he.

So to look at this a little bit deeper, everything besides Allah and his attributes is jism.

created or originated.

So when Ibn Belban states that everything besides Allah, and that includes Allah, His names, His attributes, is originated, he's essentially establishing the foundational principle of Sunni doctrine.

The entire universe, in all its dimensions, be they ajsam, bodies, or jawahir, whether they're independent substances or contingent properties out of, whether they're forces, movements, inequalities, all of these are preceded by non-existence and brought into being solely by Allah.

Essentially, he's saying that nothing shares pre-eternity with the divine, Haizul Ajeb.

Nothing stands alongside him in existence without beginning.

And this goes back to the very opening sections of the text that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is the pre-eternal, everlasting, without beginning and without end.

and there is none like Him ." And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala highlights this in the Qur'an in a multitude of verses.

The most obvious, perhaps, is Allah is the Creator of all things.