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The proof for the existence of God was built upon Burhan Huduth Al-Ajsam, which used the inherit potential for rest and motion in bodies, in order to prove their emergence.

An opponent may object to the above by saying: “while the motion of bodies is an observable reality, rest is not. Even when a body appears to be at rest to the naked eye, we know that the particles that this body is made of, are actually in continuous vibration. What’s to say that true rest is impossible, and that motion is necessary for bodies?”

To this we respond: we can deduce that bodies are emergent even if we suppose that rest is impossible for them. This is because under the opponent’s model, where rest is impossible, a beginningless body would be one that was in continuous motion since eternity past. So we argue:

• • Under the opponent’s model, if a beginningless body could exist, then this body would have been in motion since eternity past.
  • It is impossible for a body to have been in motion since eternity past.
  • Therefore, under the opponent’s model, a beginningless body cannot exist.

The truth of the first premise is obvious. The opponent’s model deems rest impossible, entailing that a body be inseparable from motion. So if a body were beginningless, then under the opponent’s model, this beginningless body would have been moving since eternity past.

The second premise is true, because motion is the body changing its location over time. Every transition from one location to another is an event in time, and it is impossible for an infinite number of events to have been completed in the past^[1]. So since the number of events in the past is finite, the state of motion is necessarily emergent. This means that it is impossible for a body to have been moving for eternity past.

Therefore, even under the opponent’s model, all bodies are emergent.

[1] Since an infinity is endless by virtue of what it is, and so it cannot be completed. More on this here.