according to those who interpret “worship Me” as “know Me,” meaning the knowledge enjoined upon both believer and unbeliever. But this is a weak view. Some people have made this claim concerning His words near the end of Sūrat Hūd:

“And for that He created them.”

Some of the Qadarīs claimed that this lām denotes outcome or eventual result: that is, their eventual outcome was mercy or disagreement, even though the Creator did not intend it. They likened this to His words:

“Then Pharaoh’s household picked him up, only for him to become an enemy and a source of grief to them,”

and to the poet’s words:

“Bear children for death, and build for ruin.”

This interpretation is also weak here, because the lām of outcome is used only of someone who does not know how matters will ultimately turn out, and who therefore performs an act whose outcome he does not know—as was the case with Pharaoh’s household. But as for one who knows the outcomes and consequences of actions, it is inconceivable that he should perform an act without knowing its outcome. If he knows that his act has a particular outcome, he does not intend by it something he knows will not occur, for that would be wishful thinking, not willing.

Rather, the lām here has its familiar meaning: it is the lām meaning “in order to,” the lām of purpose. When it is omitted, the verbal noun it governs in the genitive takes the accusative as an expression of purpose. This purpose is called the final cause: it precedes the act in knowledge and will, but follows it in existence and realization. This cause is the intended, sought-after objective of the act. However, it should be understood that will in the Book of Allah is of two kinds: