Theological schools emphasize different aspects of qaḍāʾ. Some Ashʿarī formulations relate it to eternal will specifying an object of power, while philosophical formulations emphasize the ordered world in relation to divine knowledge.
The difference is more than historical terminology; it can change the object of an objection. If decree refers to a divine attribute, the moral ruling on a servant's particular act does not automatically attach to the attribute itself.
Sound argument first fixes the meaning of the key word and then uses that same meaning in each premise. Otherwise an apparently neat inference may rest on a hidden equivocation.