  In whatever way one winds up interpreting Maimonides’ own view on creation, it is important to bear in mind that he is writing in a philosophical context in which there is plenty of strong precedent for identifying the language of “creation” (and even “creation ex nihilo”) with the idea that God eternally emanates forth in virtue of his ownmost essence as the pure good (a point itself rooted in Plotinus in the idea of an “unjealous” God in Plato’s Timaeus). It might be additionally noted that in the Theology of Aristotle, this bountiful picture of God—linked in a range of medieval Islamic texts to the idea of God’s generosity—is also overtly linked to the idea that God creates without thought or deliberation. While in and of itself (in another theological context) this might sound like an insulting way to describe God (i.e. “thoughtless”), in the context at hand, it is part of the most honored and exalted way of describing God, emphasizing in particular just how essentially creation flows from God’s bountiful goodness. For God to deliberate about creation in this context would be to make of creation an afterthought when, on the contrary, giving life to the world is here highlighted as part and parcel of who God essentially is. We can find this idea of “thoughtlessness” in a sense in even Avicenna’s more Aristotelian description of God as an Intellect: even qua Intellect, Avicenna’s God creates “in virtue of His very essence,” and not by a process of reasoning as we might understand it in human contexts.