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The First Maamar: That All Existing Things Are Newly-Made.
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The author of the book says — a preamble to this maamar: whoever engages in this inquiry seeks something that has not come under direct observation, nor been grasped by the senses; rather, he aims to establish it by way of rational inference, namely: what things were like before us.
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The sought object is a subtle, refined thing that sense cannot reach — so the seeker reaches for it through thought. When the sought meaning is itself like this and the seeker aims to find it, and he finds it in the form in which he sought to find it, he may not deny it, nor may he try to attain it in any other form.
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The knowledge of what things were like before us is something no rational being has ever witnessed; rather, we all aim to arrive through our intellects at something remote and deep, beyond our senses — as the first wise man said of it: 'Remote is all that came to be, and exceedingly deep — who can find it?' (Qohelet 7:24)
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If it comes out for us that things were brought into being from nothing — and our senses have never encountered anything of the sort — we should not recoil or cast it away, saying: 'how can we affirm what we have never seen the like of?' For from the very outset of our inquiry, we sought that which would come out beyond what we had seen. Rather, let us be comforted by it and rejoice in it, since we have seized upon exactly what we sought.
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The reason I needed to put forward this preamble is so the reader will not expect me to show him something-from-nothing empirically. For I have set before him that if there were an empirical path to this, he would not need from me
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...no proof, no reflection, no inference. Were we and all other people alike in perceiving it and agreeing on its character, we would not need a reflection to uncover it or a proof to clarify it. We need those only because it is neither visible nor perceptible by sense.
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Nor are we alone in having conditioned ourselves to accept, from the outset, something we have never seen: all the inquirers who reason have conditioned themselves to the very same thing.
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For the Eternalists aimed and attempted to establish something without beginning or end, yet their senses never encountered anything they could sense and thereby know to have no beginning or end; they can only aim to establish this through their intellects.
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The Dualists strive to establish two contrary independent principles that blended together to constitute the world; yet they have never witnessed two such contrary principles in separation, nor how they blend and intermingle; they can only attempt to infer this through the intellect.
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The Primordial-Matter theorists seek to establish a substratum (hylē): something with no heat and no cold, no moisture and no dryness, that by some force transformed so that these four qualities arose in it. Yet their senses have never grasped anything lacking all four qualities, nor how it transforms so that the four come to be. Their aim is to apprehend this by way of rational analogy.
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And likewise for all the other schools, as I shall explain.
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Since the matter stands thus, and all have conditioned themselves to accept, at the outset, something that has not come under direct observation — then you, may God have mercy upon you, O seeker,
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...if what comes out from what we say is something of that sort — namely, that something came from nothing — do not hasten to deny it. For that is precisely what you sought from the very beginning of your inquiry, and all others seek the same.
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Rather, listen and understand: your proofs are stronger than their proofs; you have arguments to answer every faction among them; and beyond that, you are further bolstered by the signs and demonstrations that stand established for you.
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So hold fast to these three principles in every chapter of this book: your rational proofs are stronger; you have a rebuttal for those who disagree; and the signs of your prophets give you preponderance.
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Now that I have set out this preamble, I say: our Lord Most High has informed us that all things are newly-made, and that He made them from nothing — as He said: 'In the beginning God created...' (Gen 1:1), and also: 'I am the Lord who made everything, who stretched out the heavens by Myself, who spread out the earth from My own power' (Isa 44:24). He confirmed this for us through signs and demonstrations, and so we have accepted it.
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I then examined this matter: does it hold up by rational reflection just as it holds up by prophecy? I found that it does, from many angles. From the totality of these I select four proofs.
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The first of them is from finitude (al-nihāyāt): given that it is established that heaven and earth are finite — earth being at the center with heaven revolving around it — it follows necessarily that their power too is finite, since infinite power cannot reside in a finite body, for that would negate what is known. And since the sustaining power of both is finite, it follows necessarily that they have a beginning and an end.
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After this proof came to me, I deliberated carefully in formulating it, and avoided haste in advancing it until I had worked it out precisely. I reflected: perhaps —