In the third sense, praise and blame raise a deeper question than utility: on what basis does an agent deserve approval or reproach, reward or punishment?
In the Ashʿarī account, revelation and the divine command play the decisive role in establishing religious accountability. Muʿtazilī reasoning gives broader independent authority to rational moral assessment. Māturīdī discussions recognize some rationally intelligible moral qualities while treating their precise relation to obligation as a distinct issue.
Thus the argument that an unperformable command is morally objectionable depends partly on how much authority reason is granted in this third sense.