The Shaykh—may Allah sanctify his soul—also said:

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As for the question concerning “the purposes underlying Allah’s actions,” the position of the majority of Muslims, among both the early and later generations, is that Allah Most High creates for a wise purpose and commands for a wise purpose. This is the position of the leading scholars of jurisprudence and religious knowledge. Most speculative theologians, including the Mu‘tazilah, the Karrāmiyyah, and others, agree with them on this.

A group of speculative theologians and those who reject analogical reasoning, however, deny that His creation and commands serve any purpose. This is the position of al-Ash‘arī and those who agree with him. They maintain that nowhere in the Quran does the grammatical particle lām indicate purpose in Allah’s actions or commands, and that Allah does not command anything to secure a benefit or avert a harm. Rather, (whatever benefits or harms His servants experience) through any cause are merely created when those causes occur—not that He creates this for the sake of that, or that for the sake of this. They believed that acting for a purpose necessarily entails need and acquiring perfection through another, and that it leads to an infinite regress.

The Mu‘tazilah affirmed that His actions serve purposes, but on the basis of their unsound principles concerning purpose and al-tajwīz (admissibility).