His servants?” I replied, “Allah and His Messenger know best.” He said, “His right over them is that they worship Him and associate nothing with Him. O Mu'ādh, do you know what right His servants have over Allah if they do that?” I replied, “Allah and His Messenger know best.” He said, “Their right over Him is that He not punish them.”

According to this view, His prophets and righteous servants have a right over Him, glorified is He, which He has imposed upon Himself and declared. According to the second view, they are entitled to what He has declared will occur, even if there is no cause that necessitates it.

Thus, the statement that a creature has no right against the Creator by virtue of which He may be asked—as it is related that Allah, Most High, said to David, “What right do your forefathers have against Me?”—is correct if what is meant is that a creature has no right against Him established by drawing an analogy or comparison with His creatures, in the way that one creature owes a right to another. This is the sort of right that ignorant worshippers imagine they have against Allah, glorified is He, on account of their worship.

Minds steeped in ignorance imagine that, through worship and knowledge, a person acquires a right against Allah of the same kind that one creature acquires against another. This is like those who serve their kings and masters, bringing them benefit and protecting them from harm, and then demand compensation and reward for doing so. When one of them encounters coldness or disregard from his master, he says to him, “Did I not do such-and-such?” He holds over him the favours he has done for him; even if he does not say this aloud, he harbours it within himself.

To imagine anything of this kind in relation to Allah, Most High, stems from human ignorance and injustice. For this reason, He, glorified is He, has explained that the benefit of a person's deeds returns to that person, and that Allah has no need of His creation. As He, Most High, says:

“If you do good, you do so for yourselves; and if you do evil, you do so against yourselves.”

And He, Most High, says:

“Whoever does righteousness, it is for his own soul; and whoever does evil, it is against it. And your Lord is never unjust to His servants.”

And He, Most High, says:

“If you disbelieve