 This is the meaning that philosophers (al-ḥukamāʾ) term “instauration” (ibdāʿ): it is to make the thing be (taʾyīs al-šayʾ) after an absolute non-being (baʿda lays muṭlaq). In fact, it belongs to the effect in itself to be non-being (lays), while because of its cause it belongs to it to be “being” (ays). And what belongs to the thing in itself is prior in the mind (ḏihn)—as regards essence, not as regards time—to that which is because of something other than itself. Here then each caused [thing] “is” (ays) after “not being” (lays), according to a posteriority in essence (Ilāhiyyāt, VI, 2, 266, 12–15).