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

this conjunction and disjunction must be proved. ‘ And these are the
premisses of which we said that they are according to the philosophers
conclusions, whereas Ghazali pretends they are first principles for them,
or nearly so. And when it is explained as we have done, it is a syllogism of
a legitimate figure and of true premisses. As to its legitimate form, the
minor is the opposite of the consequent and the conclusion is the opposite
of the antecedent, not as Ghazali believed, the minor the opposite of the
antecedent and the conclusion the opposite of the consequent. ‘ But since
they are not first principles, nor generally acknowledged, nor evident at
first sight, they are regarded, no doubt, by those who have never heard
anything of these things as very much open to objection. But indeed
Ghazali confused the sciences in a most terrible way, and he uprooted
science from its foundation and its method.
Ghazali says:
The second argument is that the philosophers say:
‘Although we assert neither that the First wills temporal
production nor that it produces the world in time by
secondary intention, we nevertheless affirm that the First has
made the world and that indeed the world has its existence
through the First only, the First never losing its character as
an agent and never ceasing to act; our theory only
distinguishes itself from others in this point, in no way
however with respect to the principle of the act. And since
the agent must have knowledge in conformity with its act, the
universe, according to us, exists through its act. ‘
But there are two ways to answer this, of which the first
is: ‘There are two kinds of action: voluntary, like the action of
animal and man; and involuntary, like the action of the sun in
producing light, of fire in producing heat, of water in
producing cold. Now knowledge of the act is only necessary
in voluntary acts, as in the human products of art, not in the
acts of nature. But according to you philosophers, God has
made the world consequent on His essence by nature and
by necessity, not through will and choice; indeed, the
universe is consequent on His essence, as light is on the
sun, and just as the sun has no power to check its light, nor
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