Any discussion of the origin of the world raises the question of its end. For Philoponus, and in Jewish tradition Saadia, the two issues are closely linked. According to what Saadia calls the argument from finitude: (1) the world has a finite magnitude, (2) what has a finite magnitude can contain only finite power, (3) what contains finite power cannot maintain itself in existence indefinitely and therefore must have a beginning and end. Therefore, the world was created. As Wolfson notes, Saadia's argument contains a tacit premise derived from Aristotle: anything that is perishable must have been generated.

It is worth noting, as Davidson does, that Saadia's argument differs from that of Philoponus in an important respect. For Saadia, although a finite body cannot maintain itself in existence indefinitely, an infinite power can maintain it in existence. So the universe may be created and yet eternal a parte post. Philoponus questions this, arguing that it is in the nature of every finite body to lose power over time. Given that the world is inherently destructible and that through infinite time everything that is possible will come to pass, it seems that a finite body cannot last forever even if it is maintained by an infinite one.

Although Maimonides does not use a version of this argument to establish creation, we have seen that he accepts the claim that anything that is generated will pass away.