QUIDDITY AND THE NECESSARY BEING The essence of the...

QUIDDITY AND THE NECESSARY BEING The essence of the Necessary Being is Its existence, in the sense that It has no quiddity besides Its particular existence; for were It to have a quiddity besides Its particular existence, its existence would be additional and accidental to Its essence. Since everything accidental is necessarily caused (ma’lûl), Its existence too would be something caused, its cause being either Its quiddity or something else.

Were Its quiddity Its cause, that quiddity would precede It in existence, as the cause is necessarily prior to its effect in terms of existence. This priority of Its quiddity to Its existence would be either with this existence or with another. The first alternative necessarily entails a thing being prior to itself, which is impossible. The second leads to an infinite regress when the same argument is shifted to it. Were Its cause something other than Its quiddity, It would…