I. The question of causality has been much dealt with in Islamic thought. There are two opposite views, one held by the Mutakallimin and the other by the philosophers. (') Most of the Mutakallimoin, both Ash'arites and Mu"tazilites, denied natural efficient causality. (2) Their point of departure was God's omnipotence and unity. If God is omnipotent and one, only He created the universe and only He continues to create whatever happens or comes into being in it. Hence they denied causation by secondary agents, animate as well as inanimate. (3) While the basis of their theory was Kur'Znic, the Mutakallimfin resorted to rational argument to substantiate it. They developed a theory of atomism, according to which the smallest part in the universe is an indivisible particle called an atom (djuz' alladhT la yaladjazza'u). Each body is composed of several atoms and of the accidents (a'rdd) inhering in them. When its atoms are dissolved, a body is destroyed. God creates and annihilates atoms at His spontaneous will not by necessity. Most of the MutakallimUn held that an atom and an accident