istawā. We do not say, “Allah istawā upon the Throne,” (1) nor do we say, “One who has settled.” They reiterated this point time and again: the very wording that has been transmitted is to be voiced exactly as it stands, (2) without substituting any synonymous expression, without attaching to it any meaning whatsoever, and without claiming that it indicates an attribute of Allah at all.

The discussion on this matter was expanded in (3) the second session, as we shall relate, Allah willing.

The second question: they said, “Your comparison with the moon equates Allah’s being in the heaven with the moon’s being in the heaven.”

The third question: they said, “Your phrase, ‘true in its real sense,’—ḥaqīqa means the lexical sense, and the lexical sense conveys nothing but the settling and elevation of bodies; (4)(5) the Arabs coined the term for that alone. Therefore, to affirm the real sense is sheer anthropomorphism, and to deny anthropomorphism while doing so—does this not amount to a contradiction, or merely a diplomatic maneuver?”

I answered them (6):

My words, “the creed of the Saved Sect,” refer to the group that the Prophet ﷺ described as saved when he said, “My community will split into seventy-three sects, seventy-two of them