the servant(1)—with anything he is incapable of doing, but he is charged with what he is capable of doing(2), based on the premise that capacity exists only together with the act(3).

The true implication of their position is that anyone who fails to perform an obligation was incapable of performing it. And this is [not](4) the position of the majority of Ahl al-Sunnah. Rather, the majority of Ahl al-Sunnah(5) affirm that the servant possesses a capacity which is the basis upon which commands and prohibitions apply. This capacity may exist before the act and need not accompany it.

They also say that the capacity by which an act occurs must accompany the act. They do not deem it possible(6) for an act to occur through a nonexistent capacity [or a nonexistent will](7), just as it cannot occur through a nonexistent agent.

As for the Qadariyya, they claim that capacity exists only before the act, while their opponents among those who affirm divine decree say that it exists only together with the act.

The position of [the imams] and the majority(8) is the middle course: capacity must accompany the act, though it may also exist before it(9) [as does the capacity of a disobedient person subject to the command](10). For that capacity precedes(11) the act in such a way that it is possessed by one who does not obey(12), as Allah Most High says: