 In Physics 2.3, Aristotle says that “the end or that for the sake of which the thing is done” is also considered a type of cause. In Arabic philosophical works, the terms “final cause” (al-ʿillah al-ghāʾiyyah) and “end” (al-ghāyah) designate this type of cause. The philosophers hold both natural motion and divine action to occur for the sake of an end, though they consider the latter to differ from the former in an important way. Natural bodies are said to act for the sake of something distinct from themselves, which they lack. For example, an animal builds for the sake of shelter. By contrast, God’s end is not distinct from God itself, rather God acts for the sake of itself. This idea is implicit in al-Kindī’s account of the final cause in The Explanation of the Proximate Efficient Cause for Generation and Corruption, which states that the end is either something external to the efficient cause, which compels it to act, or it is not something external to the efficient cause; in the latter case, the efficient cause acts “only because of itself” (McGinnis and Reisman 2007: 4). Presumably, the latter case describes divine action. Avicenna attempts to explain the idea that God cannot act for the sake of something distinct from itself as follows. He argues that an agent’s desire for an end distinct from itself implies the agent’s imperfection, since the object of the agent’s desire must be superior to the agent. In support of the latter claim, he reasons that the object of an agent’s desire must be something that perfects or benefits the agent (Avicenna MH: 321). So, an absolutely perfect agent as is God cannot act from desire for an end distinct from itself. Avicenna also argues that an agent’s intending something distinct from itself implies the agent’s multiplicity, since it involves multiple acts of knowledge, e.g., knowledge of the intention, of the reason for the intention and of the benefit to the agent to be derived from the intention (Avicenna MH: 326; McGinnis 2010: 206–208). So, an absolutely simple agent as is God cannot act by intending for the sake of something other than itself.