  According to Averroes, it is important to acknowledge that the existence of the world has a cause, and so any philosophical account of eternity that suggests otherwise won't do, whereas it is equally important to recognize that existence itself along with time “extend continuously at both extremes,” and so, any unreflective religious commitment to origination in time won't do. Exposing the weaknesses in holding either that the world is created in time (muhdath) or that it is eternal (in the sense of “uncaused”), Averroes instead upholds a notion of the world's being “generated ab aeterno.”