For it is He—glorified be He—who made the living alive. Indeed, it is He who made the Muslim a Muslim and the worshipper one who prays, as Abraham, Allah’s close friend, said:

“Our Lord, make us both submissive to You.”

And he said:

“My Lord, make me an establisher of prayer, and also some of my descendants.”

This concerns the creation of the servants’ actions, which is the doctrine of Ahl al-Sunnah wa-l-Jamā‘ah. They nevertheless agree that the servant is subject to commands and prohibitions, rewarded and punished, given promises and warnings. It is He—glorified be He—who made the white white, the black black, the tall tall, the short short, the moving moving, the stationary stationary, the moist moist, the dry dry, the male male, the female female, the sweet sweet, and the bitter bitter. Nevertheless, these entities possess these attributes, and Allah Most High is the Creator of the entities and their attributes. What, then, is surprising about a created entity possessing its attributes? And on what basis is Allah the Creator of all this in truth?

Thus, if someone says, “The Lord is real, and the servant is real,” and means that one reality is identical with the other, this is union and heresy, and it is this that is incompatible with being subject to obligations. But if he means that the servant is a real, created being whom the Creator created, this is the position of the Muslims. That does not preclude the Creator from enabling the creature, just as He creates him.

His statement, “If you say, ‘A servant,’ then he is dead,” is false. The servant is not dead; rather, he is alive, and Allah Most High has given him life, as He Most High says:

“How can you disbelieve in Allah when you were lifeless and He brought you to life?”

Allah does not impose obligations upon the dead; He imposes them only upon the living. If it is said that by “dead” he meant that the servant, considered in himself, has no life, the response is: interpreting his intended meaning in this way is unsound both in wording and in meaning. As for the wording, his words do not imply this. As for the meaning, if his words are interpreted in this way, they do not preclude being subject to obligations.