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

This theory of the flux of all existing things is a useless one, although
many ancients held it, and there is no end to the impossibilities it implies.
How could an existent come into existence, when it passes away by itself
and existence passes away through its passing away? If it passed away
by itself, it would have to come into existence by itself, and in this case
that by which it becomes existent would be identical with that by which it
passes away and this is impossible. For existence is the opposite of
passing away, and it is not possible that two opposites should occur in the
same thing in one and the same connexion. Therefore in a pure existent
no passing away can be imagined, for if its existence determined its
passing away, it would be non-existent and existent at one and the same
moment, and this is impossible. Further, if the existents persist through the
persistence of an attribute by itself, will this absence of change in them
occur through their existence or through their non-existence? The latter is
impossible, so it follows that they persist because of their existence. If,
then, all existents must persist because they are existent, and nonexistence
is something that can supervene upon them, why in Heaven’s
name do we need this attribute of persistence to make them persist? All
this resembles a case of mental disorder. But let us leave this sect, for the
absurdity of their theory is too clear to need refutation.
Ghazali says:
The fourth sect are a group of Ash’arites who say that
accidents pass away by themselves, but that substances
pass away when God does not create motion or rest or
aggregation and disintegration in them, for it is impossible
that a body should persist which is neither in motion nor at
rest, since in that case it becomes non-existent. The two
parties of the Ash’arites incline to the view that annihilation is
not an act, but rather a refraining from acting, since they do
not understand how non-existence can be an act. All these
different theories being false---say the philosophers -it
cannot any longer be asserted that the annihilation of the
world is possible, even if one were to admit that the world
had been produced in time; for although the philosophers
concede that the human soul has been produced, they claim
the impossibility of its annihilation by means of arguments
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