Aristotle, and maintains that whatever can either exist or not exist must have come into existence. He rejects Ibn Sīnā’s claim that something which can either exist or not exist may be eternal and beginningless. As for his attribution of this view to Plato, it may be said that it does not hold concerning the intelligible substances Plato considers eternal, such as time, matter, and the void. For he regards these as eternal, beginningless intelligible substances; but the further claim that they are contingent and possible, and the attribution of that claim to him, are open to question.

As for the celestial spheres, the view transmitted from Plato and others is that they came into existence. Aristotle, however, holds that the celestial spheres, intellects, and souls are eternal. In these philosophers’ terminology, they are possible and contingent, yet according to his own principles they are eternal. They report that the first among these philosophers to affirm the eternity of the world was Aristotle, the author of the Teachings.

As for the earlier philosophers, such as Plato and others, they did not affirm the eternity of these things, although they—or many of them—held that other things were eternal, from which something else might be created, and from that something further might be created, until creation culminated in this world.

This was the position of their earlier philosophers, or of many of them, and it is better than the position of Aristotle and his followers.

Ibn Rushd said:

“As for Abū al-Ma'ālī, he sought to establish this premise