Tahafut_al-Tahafut-transl-Engl-van-den-Bergh

that it passes into a relative non-existence. But he who does not conceive
the act of the agent in this way has to draw the consequence that the
agent’s act is attached to non-existence in both ways, in production as in
destruction; only as this seems clearer in the case of destruction, the
theologians could not defend themselves against their opponents. For it is
clear that for the man who holds the theory of absolute annihilation the
agent must perform something non-existent, for when the agent converts
the thing from existence into absolute non-existence, he directs his first
intention to something non-existent, by contrast with what happens when
he converts it from actual existence into potential existence; for in this
conversion the passage into non-existence is only a secondary fact. The
same consequence applies to production, only here it is not so obvious,
for the existence of the thing implies the annulment of its non-existence,
and therefore production is nothing but the changing of the non-existence
of a thing into its existence; but since this movement is directed towards
production, the theologians could say that the act of the agent is attached
solely to production. They could not, however, say this in regard to
destruction, since this movement is directed towards non-existence. They
have, therefore, no right to say that in production the act of the agent
attaches itself only to production, and not to the annulment of nonexistence,
for in production the annulment of non-existence is necessary,
and therefore the act of the agent must necessarily be attached to nonexistence.
For according to the doctrine of the theologians, the existent
possesses only two conditions: a condition in which it is absolutely nonexistent
and a condition in which it is actually existent., The act of the
agent, therefore, attaches itself to it, neither when it is actually existent,
nor when it is non-existent . Thus only the following alternatives remain:
either the act of the agent does not attach itself to it at all, or it attaches
itself to non-existence,’ and non-existence changes itself into existence.
He who conceives the agent in this way must regard the change of
nonexistence itself into existence, and of existence itself into nonexistence,
as possible, and must hold that the act of the agent can attach
itself to the conversion of either of these opposites into the other. This is
absolutely impossible in respect to the other opposites, not to speak of
non-existence and existence.
The theologians perceived the agent in the way the weaksighted
perceive the shadow of a thing instead of the thing itself and then mistake
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