Moreover, the destruction of the human being after death—regardless of how he lived before it—would render Allah’s takwin futile, whereas the futile does not come from Allah; as He has said: ﴿أَفَحَسِبْتُمْ أَنَّمَا خَلَقْنَاكُمْ عَبَثًا وَأَنَّكُمْ إِلَيْنَا لَا تُرْجَعُونَ﴾[1]; “Did you then think that We created you in vain and that you would not return to Us?!” Therefore, those who deny the existence of the Hereafter cannot believe in the existence of Allah, since the existence of Allah necessitates the existence of the Hereafter. Likewise, those who deny the existence of Allah find no rational reason for their lives and have no ultimate end other than despair and futility; as Allah Almighty has said: ﴿وَالَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا بِآيَاتِ اللَّهِ وَلِقَائِهِ أُولَئِكَ يَئِسُوا مِنْ رَحْمَتِي وَأُولَئِكَ لَهُمْ عَذَابٌ أَلِيمٌ﴾[2]; “And those who disbelieved in the signs of Allah and in meeting Him—they have despaired of My mercy, and they will have a painful punishment.” This is because, according to their supposition, if they are good, they will die like evil people, and if they are evil, they will die like good people, and they will not necessarily benefit from their goodness or suffer loss from their evil; considering that many good people died without any reward in the world, and many evil people died without any punishment in the world, and that the suffering of the former did not lead to ease, nor the ease of the latter to suffering, and therefore, preferring the suffering of goodness over the ease of evil—even though all the wise agree on it—is foolishness.

[Obedience to Allah in His Performative Expression]

As for His performative expression, it refers to His commands and His prohibitions, which arise from His satisfaction and dissatisfaction; because, by virtue of His perfection, He is pleased with good deeds and displeased with evil deeds. Yet He has no need for anything that would make Him rejoice at its attainment or grieve over its loss. However, His servants—since they are created—are in need of continued existence; for their continued existence, they have no way but perfection; for their perfection, they need to do good deeds and abandon evil deeds; and, by virtue of His perfection, Allah desires their perfection, since the desire for perfection is considered part of perfection. Therefore, His satisfaction with good deeds and His dissatisfaction with evil deeds have not arisen from His need, but from His perfection;