Page:The philosophy and theology of Averroes.djvu/278

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can never create a single fly, although they may all assemble for the purpose; and if the fly snatch anything from them they cannot turn the same from it. Weak is the petitioner and the petitioned."[1] This is where the unbeliever wanted to mislead Abraham, when he said, "I give life and kill."[2] When Abraham saw that he could understand it, he at once turned to the conclusive argument and said, "Verily, God brings the sun from the east; do you bring it from the west."

On the whole, if the matter about the creator and the doer be understood on this wise, there would be no contradiction, either in Tradition or in reason. So we say that the word Creator does not apply to the created things by any near or far-fetched metaphor, for the meaning of the creator is the inventor of the essences. So God has said, "God created you, and that which ye know."[2] It should be known

  1. Quran, XXII, 72.
  2. 2.0 2.1 "Hast thou not considered him who disputed with Abraham concerning his Lord, because God had given him