in His rank is named by His Most Beautiful Names, characterized and described by them.[30] The very relation of “the First” to Him is the relation of “the Last,” “the Manifest,” and “the Hidden.”
It is not said that He is First through one relation and Last through another. For the possible thing is bound to the Necessary Existent, in its existence and nonexistence, by a bond of need for Him in its existence. If He brings it into existence, the possible thing remains in its possibility; if it is nonexistent, it does not depart from its possibility.
Just as, when the possible thing’s entity comes into existence after having been nonexistent, no attribute enters it that removes it from possibility, so no description enters the Creator, the Necessary Existent, through His bringing the world into existence that removes Him from the necessity of His existence through Himself. The Real is intelligible only in this manner, and the possible thing is intelligible only in this manner.[31] If you understand, you know the meaning of temporal origination and the meaning of beginninglessness. After that, say what you wish.
(The World’s Firstness and Lastness, and the Divine Names)
The world’s firstness and lastness are relative matters, if it has a last. As for existence, it has a last in every individual instant, and (it has) an ending according to the people of unveiling. The Ḥusbāniyyah agree with them on this, just as the Ashʿarites agree with them that an accident does not remain for two instants. What is first in the world is first in relation to what is created after it; what is last in the world is last in relation to what was created before it.
The intelligibility of God’s being named the First, the Last, the Manifest, and the Hidden is not like this. For the world is multiple, while the Real is one and does not become multiple. It is not correct that He should be first in relation to us: His rank bears no proportion to ours, and our rank does not admit His firstness.
Notes
[30]
(The construction “characterized and described by them” has been adopted according to the newer edition.)
[31]
(“Only in this manner” has been adopted according to the newer edition.)
Translator’s note TN758-1: “Possible” describes what does not possess existence necessarily through itself; coming into existence does not remove that dependence. The Ḥusbāniyyah are the sceptics invoked here for their account of continual change; the author compares their particular claim with unveiling without equating their entire doctrines.
