of an efficient cause. Moreover, they do not hold that the sphere’s purpose is to worship and love God; rather, they say its goal is to emulate Him. For that reason they defined philosophy as “the imitation of the Deity, so far as humanly possible.”

In their view the celestial sphere is neither a product, nor contingent, nor an effect of an efficient cause; it exists by itself. To them, the contingent is only that which is originated after non-existence, and the sphere, they insist, is not so.