—to the extent he was able—and that, with regard to the command, he has done all that lay within his power, for he was incapable of doing anything beyond what he actually did. And although you do not yourselves draw this implication (1), it is an inevitable consequence of your doctrine so long as you do not distinguish between two kinds of ability.
Indeed, the position of the Qadariyya, who hold that the servant’s capacity can lead to either of two opposite outcomes and who reject the kind of ability that forms the very basis of commands and prohibitions, is still closer to the Qur’an, the Sunnah, and the Sacred Law than your claim that ability exists only in the one who performs the act, and that whoever fails to act has, by definition, no ability to do so. Anyone who considers the two opinions without prejudice will see that, while each diverges from the Sunnah to some extent, your view is the more at odds with it.
Likewise, the Muʿtazilites declared that Allah does not create the deeds of His servants; rather, the servant himself brings his deeds into being, and they thereby erred in asserting that Allah does not create human actions. You, however, maintain that the servant performs none of his deeds at all—that they are, in fact, the act of Allah Most High—yet they are still a kasb (acquisition) for the servant (2) and
Manāsik al-Ḥajj – Chapter on the Obligation of Hajj; Sunan Ibn Mājah, vol. 1, p. 3 (Introduction – Chapter on Following the Sunnah of the Prophet, hadith no. 1); Musnad al-Imam Aḥmad, vol. 2, pp. 247, 258.
(1) In some editions it reads la taltalzimūn ("you do not bind yourselves"), which is a scribal error.
(2) al-Ashʿarī and al-Bāqillānī stated: “What is actualized by the created (occasional) power (al-qudra al-ḥadītha) is the action as a kasb (acquisition), not as an existent or newly created entity; to call it kasb is to describe existence as if it were an attribute. Some of their later followers summarized these statements by saying: ‘Kasb is simply the ordinary conjunction between the created power and the act, for Allah, exalted is He, produces the act of worship by creating the act at the moment of the servant’s power and will, not by those faculties themselves; this conjunction is the kasb.’”
Ibn al-Qayyim (may Allah have mercy on him), after citing the above, remarked: “Many of the ‘rationalists’ have consequently said that this is among the absurdities of discourse, akin to the states of Abu Hashim and Tufrat al-Nizām, and to the self-subsisting meaning which its proponents call ‘speech.’ Much of it is neither rational nor conceivable.”
He then explained that the established Ashʿarī position is that the created (occasional) power does not affect what lies within its capacity, nor does what lies within that capacity (al-maqdūr) — nor any of its attributes — come into being through it; rather, what lies within its capacity, in all its attributes, exists by virtue of the eternal power, and the created (occasional) power has no influence on it. Most of his followers concurred.