and others. I know of none of the leading scholars who used it without qualification; indeed, I know of none of the Companions or those who followed them in righteousness who used it in “questions of divine decree and compulsion.”
None of the leading Muslim scholars—neither the four imams nor others: neither Mālik, Abū Hanīfah, al-Shāfi‘ī, Ahmad ibn Hanbal, al-Awzā‘ī, al-Thawrī, al-Layth, nor others like them—said that Allah imposes upon His servants obligations beyond their capacity. Nor did any of them say that a servant performs his act only figuratively, not in reality. Nor did any of them say that a servant’s power has no effect on his act or on his acquisition of it. Nor did any of them say that a servant possesses power only at the moment of acting, that the capacity to perform an act exists only alongside it, or that a servant has no capacity to perform an act before performing it.
Rather, their statements abundantly affirm what the Quran and Sunnah indicate: that someone may possess the capacity to act without actually acting. Thus Allah Most High says:
“Pilgrimage to the House is a duty owed to Allah by those who are able to undertake it.”
And He Most High says:
“But whoever is unable must feed sixty needy people.”
And the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said to ‘Imrān ibn Husayn:
“Pray standing; if you cannot, then sitting; and if you cannot, then on your side.”
They agreed that acts of worship are obligatory only upon those capable of performing them, and that a person may retain that capacity despite disobeying and failing to act—as with someone capable of fulfilling what he has been commanded concerning prayer and zakat