they said for this reason we have decided that the world is the action of god from eternity to eternity and there is no state except that he is the doer of it because what is connected to the doer is existence. if the connection lasts existence lasts and if it is cut off it is cut off not as you imagined that if the creator had decreed its nonexistence the world would have remained since you thought that it is like a building with a building for it ceases to exist and the building remains. for the continuation of the building is not by the builder but rather by the dryness that holds its composition together. if there were not in it a holding force like water for example the continuation of the form created by the action of the doer in it would not be conceivable.
قالوا ولهذا قضينا بأن العالم فعل الله أزلا وأبدا، وما من حال إلا وهو فاعل له لأن المرتبط بالفاعل الوجود، فإن دام الارتباط دام الوجود، وإن انقطع انقطع لا كما تخيلتموه من أن البارئ لو قدر عدمه لبقى العالم، إذ ظننتم أنه كالبناء مع البناء، فإنه ينعدم ويبقى البناء، فإن بقاء البناء ليس بالباني بل هو باليبوسة الممسكة لتركيبه، إذ لو لم يكن فيه قوة ماسكة كالماء مثلا لم يتصور بقاء الشكل الحادث بفعل الفاعل فيه.