Argument Concerning the Eternity of Time

For the theologians the world is temporally originated حادث زمانی or created in time, which means that it has come into existence from temporal non-existence عدم زمانی; to elaborate further the existence of the world was preceded by a period of non-existence; in other words this world is posterior to time مسبوق بالزمان; but the only way the world could be posterior to time or temporally originated is for time to have existed prior to the world; but time itself is believed to be a creation of God; a contingent existent ممکن الوجود like the world; therefore according to the theologians, being something created and contingent, it cannot be eternal قدیم as God alone to the exclusion of everything else is eternal; but if time is not eternal then it must be temporally originated like the world; but being temporally originated necessitates that the existence of time must be preceded by a period of its non-existence; which actually means that in order for time not to be eternal there must be a time in which there was no time, or to put it simply, there must be a time before time itself; but this is absurd because it implies the existence of a thing before that thing, and therefore leads to a conjunction of contraries اجتماع نقیضین, which is impossible, since it implies both the existence as well as the non-existence of the same thing, namely time; it implies the precedence of a thing before Itself, but it is impossible for a thing to be prior to itself, as that would require it to simultaneously be and not be; to exist and not exist at the same time, and this is absurd; but for the sake of argument let us grant the impossible for a moment by assuming time to be temporally originated and hence having a period of non-existence for itself; but then the same question will revert towards that period of non-existence; is that period eternal or originated? and if originated then it must also necessarily be preceded by a period of non-existence, and so on; this would either lead to an infinite regress تسلسل or circular causation دور, both of which are held to be impossible by both the theologians as well as the Philosophers; the only way out of this problem is to acknowledge the eternity of time; therefore time is eternal but not eternal in itself قدیم بالذات but through another قدیم بالغیر, namely God.

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