punishment from above you or from beneath your feet, or divide you into factions and make you taste one another’s violence.”

It is established in the Sahīh that Jābir reported:

“When this verse was revealed—‘Say: He is able to send upon you punishment from above you’—the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, ‘I seek refuge in Your Face.’ At ‘or from beneath your feet,’ he said, ‘I seek refuge in Your Face.’ At ‘or divide you into factions and make you taste one another’s violence,’ he said, ‘These two are less severe.’”

Allah, Most High, has also said:

“Had We willed, We would have given every soul its guidance.”

Those among the speculative theologians who attribute to Ahl al-Sunnah wa-l-Jamāʿah the statement that a person has no power to do anything other than what he has done—that is, anything contrary to what Allah knows—are mistaken insofar as they attribute to them an unrestricted denial of ability. They are, however, correct insofar as they attribute to them the denial of that particular ability which distinguishes the one who acts from the one who refrains. This is one of the underlying issues in their dispute over whether it is permissible to impose obligations beyond a person’s capacity.

Those who say that ability exists only concurrently with the act, so that one who refrains has no ability whatsoever, say that everyone who disobeys Allah has been charged by Allah with something beyond his capacity. They may likewise say that all people have been charged with what they cannot do.

Those who say that the ability to act is the same as the ability to refrain say that people have been charged only with that for which they all possess equal capacity, power, and ability: the one who acts has no particular ability distinguishing him from the one who refrains. Thus, to state without qualification that a person has been charged with what he cannot do is like stating without qualification that he is compelled to perform his actions