the Creator (1) of all things, that He has power over all things, or that whatever He wills comes to pass and whatever He does not will does not come to pass. Yet divine oneness, divine justice, and prophethood take precedence (2) over the Imamate. How, then, can [the Imamate] (3) be nobler and more important?

Moreover, they deem the Imamate (4) obligatory only because it assists in fulfilling obligatory duties. Thus, it is obligatory only as a means. How, then, can the means be more important and nobler (5) than the objective?

[The third argument: The Imamate, as conceived by the Rāfidah, provides neither assistance nor benefit]

The third argument is as follows:

If the Imamate is the most important objective of religion and the noblest issue for Muslims, then the Rāfidah are the people furthest removed from this most important and noblest matter. They have [indeed] (6) advanced the most foolish and corrupt doctrine concerning the Imamate, both rationally and religiously, as we shall explain—Allah Most High willing—[when we discuss their arguments] (7). It is enough to note that what they seek through the Imamate is an infallible leader who would serve as a gracious aid in securing their religious and worldly welfare. Yet no sect is farther removed (8) than they are from the benefit that such gracious aid and the Imamate are meant to provide. They resort to contrivances concerning an unknown and nonexistent figure, whose person and trace cannot be seen and from whom neither sound nor report is heard. Thus, they have gained nothing of the end intended by his Imamate.

Any person who might be posited as an imam and who provides some benefit in religious and worldly affairs would be better than one who