, which entails his dying in disbelief, and that he heard this declaration, then in that situation his obligation ceased, and his faith would no longer benefit him—just as faith does not benefit someone who believes only after witnessing the punishment. Allah Most High says:

“But their faith did not benefit them when they saw Our punishment.” [Ghāfir: 85]

And He Most High says:

“Now? When you had disobeyed before and were among the corrupters?” [Yūnus: 91]

The point here is to draw attention to the different aspects of the dispute over this principle: sometimes it concerns the act commanded, and sometimes the admissibility of issuing the command.

This is the source of the confusion spread among people by certain speculative theologians: a theologian treats the two categories as one and asserts, without qualification, that people are charged with what lies beyond their capacity, because some cases occur that people generally do not regard as beyond one’s capacity. The dispute over these cases does not concern commands and prohibitions, but rather divine decree and predestination. He then treats the admissibility of this category as necessarily entailing the admissibility of the category that Muslims agree lies beyond a person’s capacity, drawing an analogy between the two types. Such analogies are unanimously regarded as invalid by Muslims—indeed, by all adherents of religions, and even by all rational people.

For whoever compares an able-bodied person commanded to perform acts—as in the assertion that capacity accompanies the act, or that Allah knew that he