  For Avicenna and for Averroes—though in different ways—the idea of eternity does not exclude talking about the existence of the universe as a created effect of God: for Avicenna, God is the “cause of being” in the sense that He is the eternally emanating source of being, whereas for Averroes, God is the “cause of being” in the sense of an ab aeterno non-emanative source of generation. Maimonides—given all of his overt talk of emanation (fayḍ) in the Guide—would seem best grouped with Avicenna on this issue, though as we have seen above, other aspects of his view of God’s role in the universe resonate strongly with Averroes. To be sure, the exact nature of Maimonides’ view—and the extent of its similarities to and/or influences from the views of Avicenna and Averroes—seems reasonably open to debate. Given the subtle interplay of the notions of emanation, creation, eternal sustenance, and ontological causal grounding—in addition to Maimonides' own arguably ambiguous claims about creation—it is difficult to know for sure what Maimonides is advocating, even when he is advocating “creation.”