The reply is:

“If the obedience of those who are morally accountable lies within Allah’s power, yet He did not create it, then He did not create the benefit sought through the infallible person; so how could that benefit be obligatory upon Him? If their obedience does not lie within His power, then, in its absence, the obligation could not apply even to a morally accountable person—so how could it apply to Allah?

“If something is required for an obligation to become binding [but is nonexistent], then [the act in that circumstance] is not obligatory (1).

“Do you not see that a person is not required to secure a benefit that cannot be attained without another person’s action unless that other person assists him? Consider Friday prayer, which becomes obligatory only behind an imam or when the requisite number is present: a person is not required to perform it unless the imam and all the other members of that number are present. Likewise, when travel for Hajj is obligatory only in the company of a group with whom he will be safe, or when there is someone who will rent him a mount, it is not obligatory if no one is available to do that (2) with him.

“Similarly, when injustice cannot be repelled from an oppressed person without helpers, one who has no helpers is not obligated to repel it.

“Thus, if they say, ‘The Lord is obligated to secure for His servants these benefits that result from creating the infallible person, although they can be attained only if someone exists who will obey him; and, on this supposition, Allah Most High cannot make people obey him,’ then creating the infallible person would not be obligatory upon Him. This is because that without which the obligatory end cannot be attained is not itself obligatory, and because the intended purpose is not attained through the infallible person alone (3).

“If it is said, ‘He creates him in the hope that some people may obey him,’ the first reply is: ‘Such hope is impossible for one who knows how matters will turn out.’”