benefits—whether they are intrinsically excellent or not. This indicates that benefit is not the very essence of wisdom and goodness, since this remains unclear even to those familiar with it. It is established, rather, that the very essence of wisdom and goodness is for one deserving praise and glorification to elicit them, since this aspect involves an analogy for a rational person.

They said: Allah, exalted is His majesty, said when describing the people of Paradise:

“To Him belongs all praise in this life and the Hereafter.”
[al-Qasas 70]

And He said:

“And their final supplication will be: ‘All praise is for Allah, Lord of all worlds.’”
{10}
[ Yūnus 10]

Since He has made their praise of Him the ultimate end to which He gathers them through this entire ordering of affairs, it is established that this is the purpose of creating everything. Allah Most High said:

“I did not create jinn and mankind except to worship Me.”
{56}
[al-Dhāriyāt 56]

This means that some of them would worship Him, so that their worship and glorification of Him would serve as recompense for all whom He created, both those who worship Him and those who do not. For those who do not worship Him become a means through which those who do worship Him do so. It is therefore valid for the worship of those who worship Him to be a purpose of this entire ordering of affairs.

They said: When He imposed obligations on someone whom He knew would not obey, His purpose in imposing those obligations was not that this person should ultimately attain a good condition peculiar to himself; rather,