There is no similarity between them...

There is no similarity between them, so the world may be referred to as "non-God" (ghayr allah) or "besides-God" (ma siwa allah). Despite this ontological split, however, God and the world make up a field of uniform discourse, and the same logic applies to both of these ontologically different parts. [494] There are two general questions that the Mutakallimun put concerning the relation between God and the world: is there any cause*('illa)* for the Divine act of creation?

and is there any cause for the Law given to the people? One of the prominent Mutakallimun, Abu al-Hudhail al-'Allaf, argued that any act - including Divine creation - must necessarily be based upon some reasonable foundation. People were created for their own "benefit" (manfa`a); otherwise, for al-'Allaf, Divine creation makes no sense (al-Ash`ari, 1980, p. 252).

Another well known Mutakallim, Mu`tamir, argued that a creative act has its foundation; that that foundation must have its own foundation, and so on ad infinitum. Thus the recursive search for cause has no limit*(ghaya).* For al-Nazzam, "formation" (takawwun) itself serves as sufficient reason for creation. Thus he introduced, as al-Ash'ari wrote, the concept of final cause*(gharad)* (al-Ash'ari, 1980. p. 470). Finally, some Mutakallimun argued that the world was created for no reason at all.

Is there any rational basis, reason and cause ( 'illa) for what is prescribed and what is prohibited by Revealed Law? Radical rationalists among the Mutakallimun argued that every prescription has its cause. Moreover, any new norm of law ( far') can be established only after it has been co-measured ( qiyas) with these causes, so that the causes "are continuous" (ittirad) and survive in the newly established legal norm.

Thus the new norm of law, though adopted by people and not revealed by God, is nevertheless justified by the cause that necessitated one of the norms of Revealed Law. This view proceeded from the assumption that the human mind is capable of knowing the reasons that guided God's intentions. And, of course, some Mutakallimun could not help saying the opposite, arguing that there is no cause besides God's will for any prescription of Revealed Law (al-Ash'ari, 1980, p. 470).

Another question in connection with which causality was discussed in Kalam concerned the changes that occur in our world. Daily experience shows that bodies remain unchanged only for limited periods of time, after which alteration inevitably occurs.