Page:The philosophy and theology of Averroes.djvu/224

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quite a new thing. In this way every kind of creation may be said to have come into existence by chance.

We say that it is necessary that there be found order and arrangement, the more perfect and finished than what can be imagined. This mixing together of elements is limited and pre-arranged, and things produced by them are sure to happen, and no disorder has ever happened in them. But all this could not happen by chance alone, for that which happens in this way by chance is of the least value. It is to this that God refers, "It is the work of the Lord, who has rightly disposed all things."[1] I would like to know what completeness can be found in things made by chance, for such things are by no means better than their opposites. To this God refers in the following words, "Thou canst not see in the Creation of the most Merciful any unfitness or disproportion. Lift thy eyes

  1. Quran xxvii, 90.