capable except at the time of the act.

These people say that, according to them, capacity cannot apply to both alternatives (1). This is because the capacity that accompanies an act applies only to that particular act and necessarily entails it; it does not exist without it. For if it could apply alternatively to either of two opposites, it could exist in the absence (2) of one of them. Yet that which accompanies something necessarily entails it (3) and cannot exist in its absence, for the existence (4) of that which entails something without its necessary concomitant is impossible.

What the Qadariyya have said [is] based on their corrupt principle (5): namely, that Allah’s granting capacity to the believer (6) and the unbeliever, and to the righteous and the wicked, is the same. They therefore do not say that Allah singled out the obedient believer (7) for assistance through which he attained faith. Rather, they say that His assistance to the obedient (8) and the disobedient is the same, but that the former, on his own, tipped the balance in favor of obedience, while the latter, on his own, tipped it in favor of disobedience. This is like a father who gave (9) each of his two sons (10) a sword: one used it to strive in the cause of Allah, while the other used it to commit highway robbery. Or he gave them both money: one spent it in the cause of Allah, while the other spent it in the cause of Satan.

This position is false by the consensus of Ahl al-Sunnah wa al-Jamā‘ah, who affirm divine decree. They unanimously agree that Allah has conferred upon His obedient [believing] servant (11) a religious blessing by which He singled him out to the exclusion of