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[I asked:] could the earth have no limit in length, breadth, and depth? I replied: if so, the sun could not encompass it so as to complete its circuit once in each day and night and return rising from where it rose and setting from where it set — and likewise the moon and all the stars.
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Then I said: perhaps it is the heaven that is infinite? I replied: how could that be, when the whole of it rotates continuously around the earth? For I may not suppose that only its nearest layer rotates while the rest, being too vast, does not — since by 'heaven' we understand only this thing that rotates, and we have no conception of anything beyond it, let alone believing it to be heaven while claiming it does not rotate.
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Then I pressed further: perhaps there are many earths and many heavens, each heaven enclosing its own earth, making infinitely many worlds? I saw this to be naturally impossible: by nature earth cannot rest above fire, nor can air rest below water — for fire and air are light, while earth and water are heavy.
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So I knew that were there any earth outside this earth in existence, all the air and fire between them would split apart to join with that earth; and similarly, were there any body of water somewhere beyond these seas, all the air and fire would cleave apart to reach those waters.
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It became fully clear to me that there is no heaven other than this heaven, no earth other than this earth; that this heaven is finite and this earth is finite; and that since their bodies are bounded, their power is bounded.
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Their power reaches a certain limit at which it halts; they cannot persist once that power is spent, nor could they have existed before it came to be. And I found that scripture attests to their finitude, saying 'from the end of the earth to the end of the earth' (Deut 30:4) and 'from one end of heaven to the other' (Deut 30:4); and it attests that the sun revolves around the earth and returns each day — 'The sun rises and the sun sets, and hastens back to its place; there it rises again' (Qohelet 1:5).
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The second proof is from the composition and joining of parts: I observed that bodies consist of fitted parts and assembled joints, and it became plain to me that they bear the marks of a craftsman's workmanship and of temporal origin.
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Then I said: perhaps this joining and bonding exists only in small bodies — the bodies of animals and plants. So I extended my reflection to the earth — and found it likewise: nothing but soil, stones, sand, and similar materials gathered together.
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Then I raised my gaze to the heaven and found it to be many layers of celestial spheres nested one within another, bearing pieces of luminous matter called stars — cut in various sizes, large and small, bright and dim — and set within those spheres.
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When it became clear to me that composition, joining, and assembly — all temporal events — pervade the body of heaven and all below it, I concluded from this proof too that heaven and all it contains are newly-made. And I found that scripture states that the detailed fashioning and joining of an animal's parts attests to its temporal origin — as it says of the human: 'Your hands fashioned and made me' (Job 10:8); of the earth: 'He formed the earth and made it, He established it' (Isa 45:18); and of the heaven: 'When I behold Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and stars that You established' (Ps 8:4).
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The third proof is from accidents: I found that no body is free from accidents that befall each one — whether from its own nature or from without — just as animals and plants grow and develop to maturity, then decline and their parts decompose.
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Then I said: perhaps the earth is free from such temporal events? But when I contemplated it, I found that it is not free from plant and animal life — both of which are newly-made in their own bodies. And it is established: what is not free from something newly-made is itself newly-made.
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Then I said: perhaps the heaven is free from such temporal events? But when I examined it, I found that it is not free from accidents: foremost among them is its ceaseless, uninterrupted motion — indeed many and varied motions, such that when each is compared to another, one finds slower and faster among them.
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Among these accidents: the falling of light from one part of the heaven upon another, producing illumination — as with the moon; and the tinting of some of its stars with white, red, yellow, and green. When I found that temporal events had encompassed the heaven entirely, with the heaven not preceding them, I was certain: whatever does not precede what is newly-made is itself newly-made, for it falls within the temporal order. And scripture declares that the temporal events of earth and heaven indicate that each has a beginning: 'I made the earth and created man upon it; My own hands stretched out the heavens and I marshaled all their host' (Isa 45:12).
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The fourth proof is from time. I knew that time has three divisions: past, present, and future. Given that the present moment is less than any instant, I placed the 'now' as a point and said: if a person, trying in his thought to ascend through time from this
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...point upward could not do so if time has no beginning — since what has no limit cannot be traversed by thought ascending through it. That same reason prevents existence from traversing time downward until it reaches us. And if existence had not reached us, we would not be.
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When I found myself existing, I knew that existence had traversed time until it reached me — and had time not been finite, existence could not have traversed it. I applied the same conclusion to future time as to the past, without hesitation. And I found scripture speaking in the same vein about far-off time: 'Every person has beheld it; a human gazes from afar' (Job 36:25); and the sage said: 'Let me fetch knowledge from afar, and ascribe justice to my Maker' (Job 36:3).
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It reached me that certain heretics — among those who had argued with other monotheists before me — objected to this proof, saying: it is possible to traverse something with infinitely divisible parts by actually moving through it, because any mile or cubit a person travels, when we consider it in mind we can divide it into infinitely many parts.
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Some theorists took refuge in positing an indivisible atom; others in the doctrine of instantaneous leaps; others in the landing of many parts upon many parts. But when I examined this objection I found it to be a sophism: dividing something without limit occurs for us only in imagination (wahman), not in actuality (fiʿlan) — for a thing becomes too fine to be subject to actual traversal or partition.
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If past time was traversed by existence only in imagination and not in actuality — then yes, by my life, that would undermine this proof. But if existence actually traversed time until it reached us, then this objection is no objection against our proof, for it operates only in imagination.
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Beyond these four proofs I have further proofs: some I established in my Commentary on Genesis, some in my Halachot Yetzirah, and in my book Against Ḥiwi al-Balkhī — as well as various details found in my other writings.
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Moreover, all the arguments with which I respond in this maamar against those who oppose this doctrine are themselves materials for the doctrine — supporting it and strengthening it. They should each be attended to, and what is relevant among them added to this belief.
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Chapter 2. Now that it is fully established for us that all things are newly-made, I then examined: is it possible that they created themselves, or is it impossible that anything made them except another? It seemed impossible to me that they could have created themselves, for several reasons; I shall mention three of them.
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The first reason: take any body among existing things and suppose that it made itself — we know…