[Proofs for the Origination of the World]

Answer – and Allah is the One who grants success and help: What indicates the origination of the world are several matters:
1. Necessity (self-evidence), as we observe in the various kinds of animals, plants, clouds, winds, rains, and other things. These things are originated by necessity and direct observation. Once their origination is established, we analogize to them those things whose origination we have not seen and observed, such as the heavens and the earth and the like. The common element in this analogy is similarity in corporeality; so whatever ruling is established for some bodies is established for the others. This path brings the one who reflects to knowledge and certainty.
2. That bodies are called a “work” (ṣun‘), and a work cannot be without a Maker. Whatever needs a Maker is originated.
3. Rational analogy: namely, analogizing the bodies whose origination we have not witnessed – such as the heavens and the earth and the bodies within them – to constructed things like houses and other buildings. The common reason (‘illah) uniting the two is composition, for all bodies are composite. The Commander of the Faithful (Peace be upon him) pointed to this proof in his words: “Can there be a building without a builder, or a crime without one who commits it?”
4. The proof of possibility: its meaning is that the particularization of each body with specific accidents, properties, shape, and form – despite its being possible for it to have other properties and characteristics – must be due to something additional to its mere corporeality; otherwise, bodies would share the same properties and accidents, and there would be no difference whatsoever.
5. The proof of “claims” (dalīl al-da‘āwī), which is:
1. That in the body there is an accident other than it.
2. That those accidents are originated.
3. That the body has never been without those accidents, nor prior to them.
4. That its inseparable attachment to them entails origination.
Now, the accident that does not separate from the body is of five types: four specific to body, and one specific to substance (according to those who affirm it). The four are: motion, rest, conjunction, and separation. The fifth is absolute “being” (al-kawn al-muṭlaq), which is specific to the individual substance (al-jawhar al-fard). They said in its explanation, as in Nahj al-Sa‘ādah: “It is the meaning which necessitates the being of the individual substance in a direction (side) at the initial moment of its origination.”
These five types are called “the modes of being” (al-akwān). The detailed exposition and clarification of this proof is mentioned in the books of kalām, so let it be sought there.
Yes, the path to knowing Allah, exalted is He, is nearer in its course than what the theologians mention. The Qur’an is filled with proofs and evidences; in it there is sufficiency for the intellect, healing for what is in the breasts, and guidance and mercy. From here He, exalted is He, said: “And if any one of the polytheists seeks your protection, then grant him protection so that he may hear the Speech of Allah…” [al-Tawbah:6].
[The clearest proofs, according to reason, for the origination of the world]
– The proofs by which the mutakallimun (theologians) infer the origination of the world, such as the proof of possibility and the proof of accidents, are not sufficient to convince the intellect, because of what they contain of obscurity.
– The most evident of proofs, in the view of the intellect, is the proof of dependence (ta‘alluq), for the intellect decisively judges that there must be an agent for every act, who brings it into being and to whom it is attached.
– And the clearest of proofs, according to the intellect, is in that whose origination is perceived after it had not been, such as the falling of rain, the formation of clouds, the creation of the human being and animals, and the like of occurrences that were not, then came to be. Allah, exalted is He, has argued with the like of this in His Noble Book: “Have you seen the water that you drink? Is it you who brought it down from the rainclouds, or is it We who bring it down?” [Al-Waqi‘ah]
– This is clearer to the intellect because it does not require examining whether it is originated;
– Whereas the heaven and the earth, in general, require that one first examine whether they are originated or pre-eternal; the intellect does not arrive at being convinced of their origination except after great effort, and then, secondly, it looks into the One who originated them. As for the occurrences we have mentioned, they require only that one look into the One who originated them, because their origination is observed and sensed.
– Because the proofs for the origination of the world are obscure, some of the philosophers said that the world is pre-eternal.
The answer to them is that we say:
1- What is meant by “the world” is that which we observe of the earth, soil, mountains, stones, the waters of the seas, the air, the sun, the moon, the stars, and the wide expanse of space in which the planets swim. This is what the human being knows by the term “world”.
2- Everything that has been mentioned in the meaning of “world” is subjugated to serve the human being; were it not for that, human life would not be complete. This indicates that behind all that there is a wise will that has arranged it.
3- The earth, the sun, the moon, the stars, and the planets are in continual motion; each one of them swims in space according to a precise system and a wise speed. There must, therefore, be an agent who does that.
4- There is no doubt that the motions of the earth, the sun, the moon, the stars, and the planets are originated motions, and those motions are attributes of them. If their attributes are originated, then they themselves must be originated. This line of reasoning returns to inferring by the proof of accidents which the theologians mention.
5- It has been established scientifically today, among the specialists in the natural sciences of the universe in both the West and the East, that the world is originated and that it will come to an end. In that case there is no need for theoretical inference when there exists a proof confirmed by sense and experiment. The specific proof which contemporary scholars mention does not come to my mind at this moment, but the reader can refer to what has been written on this subject.

Source: Min Thimār al-ʿIlm wa al-Ḥikmah vol.3