{As for Thamud, We guided them, but they preferred blindness over guidance} 1 . Thus, His word was fulfilled in truth regarding what He decreed and in justice regarding what He enacted. He made Knowledge and Action the two steeds for racing toward the goals of spiritual pleasures, and made Ignorance and Sloth the cause for treading into the painful corporeal punishments.
He did not obligate what He obligated—of that which was previously mentioned—except due to the creatures' need for Him, both outwardly and inwardly.
For He ordained the religious duties so that things might be known through them; since there is no way to know the reality of the craft except after affirming the Craftsman (al-Sāni‘) thereof—for it [the craft] exists not but from Him. He is the Maker of every made thing and the Empowerer of every empowered thing; there is no way to know things except through Him. He obligated His Unification (Tawḥīd) to bestow upon the souls knowledge of His Oneness and to remove from them the darkness of ignorance regarding Him.