either directly or by creating troops for him, so that he might accomplish what you have mentioned.”

Rather, you say:

“He was powerless, subjugated, and wronged during the time of the three. Then, when he acquired an army, another army arose and fought him, so that he was unable to accomplish what those before him had accomplished—even though, according to you, they were wrongdoers.”

Thus, Allah supported those who preceded him until they were able to achieve the benefits they achieved, but He did not support him so that he could do the same. Consequently, Allah did not create the divinely supported, infallible imam whose creation you demanded of Him.

If you say:

“The people were obliged to pledge allegiance to him and assist him,”

we reply:

Yet the people did not do so, whether they were obedient or disobedient. In any event, none of those whom you regard as infallible received support, either from Allah or from the people. The benefits you mentioned can be attained only with support (1). If such support was not forthcoming, then that by which those benefits could be attained was likewise absent. Rather, only some of the causes conducive to it were present, and that does not achieve the intended purpose.

The third point:

It may be said: If the full set of conditions required to achieve these objectives was not present, and many of those conditions were lacking, why could the missing condition not have been infallibility itself?

If the intended objective remains unrealized—whether because infallibility is absent or because the infallible imam is powerless—there is no difference between its being unrealized for one reason or the other. On what rational basis, then, can it be known that Allah must create an infallible imam?

He would create him only so that the interests of His servants might be secured through him; yet He created him powerless and unable to secure those interests. Indeed, his existence resulted in evils that would not otherwise have occurred.