Al-Bīrūnī accepts fully the scripturally supported belief that the world was created ex nihilo and rejects completely the arguments of the Greek philosophers for the eternity of the world. Like the theologians who fought against the Greek idea of the eternity of the world because it led to a kind of "naturalism," al-Bīrūnī also devotes much time to combating this idea. According to him, the creation of the world is a manifestation of the power of the Creator, not something to be rejected by any arguments contrived by human reason. God is the Creator who has mastery over the whole Universe and knowledge of all its particulars and inner mysteries.³¹

Al-Bīrūnī, in the Kitāb tahdīd nihāy āt al-amākin, gives a full account of his conception of the creation of the world and its scriptural history. He writes:

Now...