this is a correct statement; however, nothing in it precludes the servant from being subject to obligations, commands, and prohibitions, or from praying, fasting, killing, or committing illicit sexual intercourse.

As for his statement:

“Action belongs to Allah in a real sense, and to the servant only metaphorically.”

This statement is false. Rather, it is the servant who truly prays, fasts, performs Hajj and Umrah, and believes; and it is he who truly disbelieves, acts wickedly, kills, commits illicit sexual intercourse, and steals. Allah Most High is not described by any of these attributes; rather, He is exalted above them. Yet He is the One who makes the servant perform these actions. They are truly His creations and what He brings about, while also truly being the servant’s actions.

However, a group of speculative theologians who affirm divine decree supposed that an action is identical to what it produces, and that creating is identical to what is created. Thus, when they believed that the servants’ actions were created and brought about by Allah, they said, “They are therefore His actions.”

They were then also asked, “Are they the servant’s actions?” They fell into confusion. Some said, “They are his acquisition, not his action,” without establishing a genuine distinction between acquisition and action. Others said, “Rather, they are an act shared by two agents.” Still others said, “Rather, the Lord brings about the act itself, while the servant brings about its attributes.”

The correct position is that held by the leading authorities of the Sunnah and the majority of the Muslim community: to distinguish between an action and what it produces, and between creating and what is created. The servants’ actions, like all other things that come into being, are created and brought about by Allah, just as the servant himself and all his attributes are created and brought about by Allah. These are not His act of creating and acting itself; rather, they are what is created and brought about. These actions are the servant’s actions, subsisting in him. They do not subsist in Allah, nor is He characterized by them, for He is not characterized by His creations or by what He brings about;