If it is then said to them:

“Yet He knew that the person to whom He afforded this opportunity would derive no benefit from what He had created for him (1). Rather, he would do what harmed him. He would thus be like someone who gives a man money to spend (2) in the cause of Allah and a sword with which to fight the disbelievers, while knowing that he will instead spend the money on war against the Muslims and use the sword to fight them.”

They reply:

“The accountable person has only himself to blame; it was he who fell short by abandoning obedience.”

Ahl al-Sunnah answer them in two ways. The first is based on affirming divine knowledge. The second is based on affirming the divine will and complete power, and that He is the Creator of all things.

Regarding the first, they say: If He knew that the end He intended by the act would not (3) be achieved, then His act would not be wise, even if the failure resulted from another’s negligence.

Regarding the second: Whatever He wills comes to pass, and whatever He does not will does not come to pass. He is the Creator of all things, and He knows that He neither wills nor creates the means through which the objective they mention would come to pass. Given this, it is impossible for what they mention to be the intended purpose of creation. Every answer to the Qadarites is likewise an answer to the Rāfidites.

The Rāfidites may also be answered with other responses that the Qadarites themselves give them, even though the Qadarites agree with them on the principle of explaining divine acts in terms of purposes and of charging God with injustice (4). They say:

“Creating an infallible imam is obligatory only if He has not already created for them something that obviates their need for him.”

In sum, the essence of this argument is that it infers what actually exists from what is obligatory,