The argument presses a real question: if Allah is completely needless, why create at all? The answer is that "purpose" does not have to mean "benefit gained by God", and "Creator" does not mean Allah was incomplete until creation appeared.
Why the argument feels strong
The strongest form of the objection is this: Islam says Allah gains nothing from obedience and loses nothing through disobedience. So if creation adds nothing to Him, creating looks pointless. And if Allah must create in order to be truly called "the Creator", then creation seems necessary for His perfection. That would make Him dependent on the world, even if only conceptually.
This is a fair philosophical challenge. It targets two ideas at once: divine purpose and divine names. But it only works if we accept two hidden assumptions: first, that every purposeful act must benefit the doer; second, that a name like "Creator" is like a human job title that becomes real only after an external event completes the person.
Purpose is not the same as need
Allah's creating has wisdom, but not need. A doctor may treat a patient without needing the patient. A generous person may give without being improved by the gift. These examples are limited, because humans still have needs, but they show the basic point: an act can be meaningful because of the good it gives, not because of a deficiency it fills in the giver.
The Quran states that human and jinn existence has a moral and spiritual purpose:
"And I did not create the jinn and mankind except to worship Me."
Quran 51:56
Worship here is not because Allah needs praise. It is because creatures reach their proper end through knowing, loving, and serving the One who made them. The benefit returns to the worshipper, not to Allah. The Quran also invites us to see creation as filled with signs, not as a random display:
"Indeed, in the creation of the heavens and the earth and the alternation of the night and the day are signs for people of understanding."
Quran 3:190
So the choice is not "Allah benefits" or "creation is purposeless." There is a third option: Allah creates by wisdom and mercy, while remaining absolutely self-sufficient.
"Creator" does not mean "completed by creation"
The second part of the objection depends on a confusion between Allah's eternal perfection and the created effects of His will. Allah is not powerful only after He makes something powerful happen. He is not knowing only after there is something new to know. Likewise, He is al-Khaliq because He eternally possesses perfect power, will, knowledge, and the ability to originate whatever He wills.
Creation itself is not eternal or necessary. It occurs because Allah wills it. Classical scholars distinguished between Allah's eternal attributes and the temporal things brought into existence by those attributes. The world is an effect of His creating; it is not a condition for His perfection.
If someone insists that the English sentence "He is Creator" can only be used after creatures exist, that would be a point about language and relation, not about Allah needing the world. At most, it establishes that some descriptions involve a relation to creation once creation exists. It does not establish that Allah lacked perfection before creating.
What the argument does and does not prove
The argument does prove that Muslims should not imagine creation as something Allah needed in order to become complete. Islam already rejects that. It also reminds us not to speak as if Allah's purposes are like human insecurity, boredom, or gain.
But it does not prove that creation is arbitrary, and it does not prove compulsion. The Quran presents creation as an act of will, knowledge, and wisdom. When Allah says to the angels that He will place humanity on earth, the scene shows deliberate purpose, not necessity or accident:
"And when your Lord said to the angels, 'Indeed, I will place upon the earth a successive authority.'"
Quran 2:30
So the doctrine stands: Allah is needless, and creation is meaningful. He did not create to complete Himself. He created because He willed to bring into existence creatures who could know Him, receive His mercy, be tested, and return to Him.