Second: All parties agree that Allah intended this end. The worship for which creation was brought into being is something He intended, by common agreement, and they themselves concede that Allah intended it. Yet when the lām indicates an outcome, the agent did not intend that outcome. These people say that He created them, willed their actions, and willed their punishment for those actions. Thus, everything that happens is willed by Him.

According to them, however, He never brings about one thing He wills for the sake of another, because acting for a purpose necessarily implies need. This is a plainly weak position. Those who interpret the verse restrictively gave a similar answer.

Another group said: The verse is general in scope, but worship here means His subjugating them, exercising His irresistible power over them, and subjecting them to His power and will, and that He has brought them to the felicity or wretchedness for which He created them. This is the answer given by Zayd ibn Aslam and a group of others, and it is the second interpretation of the verse.

Ibn Abī Hātim narrated from Ibn Jurayj, from Zayd ibn Aslam, concerning His words:

“I did not create the jinn and mankind except to worship Me.”

He said: “He fashioned them for wretchedness and felicity.” Wahb ibn Munabbih said: “He fashioned them for obedience, and He fashioned them for disobedience.”

This resembles the interpretation given by some to the Prophet’s words, may Allah bless him and grant him peace:

“Every child is born upon the natural disposition.”

They understood this to mean the felicity or wretchedness decreed for the child. A group held this view, including Ibn al-Mubārak and Ahmad ibn Hanbal, according to one of the two reports from him.

Mālik was told: “The adherents of the Qadariyyah use this hadith as evidence against us.” He replied: “Use its ending as evidence against them,” referring to his words:

“Allah knows best what they would have done.”

This response is appropriate as an answer to those who denied divine knowledge, as did a group among the early generations. These are the people known as the Qadariyyah in Mālik’s terminology.