He made His imposition of obligations upon him serve a sound purpose. His purpose in imposing obligations on each individual need not be to secure a good condition peculiar to that person or something that will benefit him in the end. Rather, what is required is that His purpose be sound in terms of wisdom. Likewise, He created inanimate things without intending their creation to bring them any benefit of their own; He created them for another purpose.

By imposing obligations on one who perished, He manifested an aspect of His ordering of affairs and thereby elicited praise from those whom He knew would take heed from that person’s example. Through imposing obligations on him, He benefited others whom He knew would benefit from this. That person perished only through his own poor choice. Thus, imposing obligations on him was good, since His command to him to believe and obey, and the action he was obliged to perform, were good: He obliged him to believe and obey. What he was offered was also good, for he was offered the bliss of Paradise. As for the purpose of imposing obligations on him, it was not to secure a good condition peculiar to him in the end, since He already knew that he would perish through his own poor choice. Rather, the purpose was the sound ordering of affairs that He knew this would serve. Were it not for that, He would not have imposed obligations on him.

I say: The aim here is not to explain what must be affirmed concerning Allah Most High’s wisdom, will and mercy, or the attributes and actions that befit Him, for every occasion has its appropriate discourse.