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

I say:
heaven, or one single body, the sun or any other body, can
be the First Principle; for all these are bodies, and body is
composed of matter and form, and the First Principle cannot
be composite, as is clear on a second examination. Our
intention is to show that an existent which has no cause is
eternal by necessity and by universal consent, and only
about its qualities is there a divergence of opinion. And this
is what we mean by a first principle.
This argument carries a certain conviction, but still it,is not true. For the
term `cause' is attributed equivocally to the four causesagent, form,
matter, and end. Therefore if this were the answer of the philosophers, it
would be defective. For if they were asked which cause they mean by their
statement that the world has a first cause, and if they answered, `That
agent whose act is uncreated and everlasting, and whose object is
identical with its act', their answer would be true according to their
doctrine; for against this conception, in the way we expounded it, there is
no objection. But if they answered `The formal cause', the objection would
be raised whether they supposed the form of the world to subsist by itself
in the world, and if they answered, `We mean a form separate from
matter', their statement would be in harmony with their theory; but if they
answered, `We mean a form in matter', this would imply that the First
Principle was not something incorporeal; and this does not accord with
philosophical doctrine. Further, if they said, `It is a cause which acts for an
end', this again would agree with the philosophical doctrine. As you see,
this statement is capable of many interpretations, and how can it be
represented there as an answer of the philosophers?
And as to Ghazali's words
We call it the First Principle, understanding by this that
there is no cause for its existence, but that it is a cause for
the existence of other things.
This again is a defective statement, for this might be said also of the
first sphere, or of heaven in its entirety, or generally of any kind of
existents which could be supposed to exist without a cause; and between
this and the materialistic theory' there is no difference.
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