In Sahīh Muslim, Abū Sa‘īd al-Khudrī reported that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:

“O Abū Sa‘īd, whoever is content with Allah as his Lord, Islam as his religion, and Muhammad as his prophet is assured of Paradise.”

Abū Sa‘īd was amazed at this and said, “Repeat that for me, O Messenger of Allah.” He did so, then said:

“There is another deed by which Allah raises His servant a hundred degrees, the distance between each two degrees being like that between heaven and earth.”

He asked, “What is it, O Messenger of Allah?”

He replied, “Striving in Allah’s cause.”

In Sahīh al-Bukhārī, Umm al-Rabī‘ bint al-Barā’, the mother of Hārithah ibn Surāqah, came to the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and said, “O Prophet of Allah, will you not tell me about Hārithah?” He had been killed on the day of Badr, struck by a stray arrow. “If he is in Paradise, I shall bear it patiently; but if he is elsewhere, I shall weep bitterly for him.”

He said:

“O mother of Hārithah, there are many gardens in Paradise, and your son has attained the highest Firdaws.”

[The expression “a stray arrow” means an arrow whose archer is unknown.]

The first hadith thus makes clear that the Throne is above al-Firdaws, which is the central and highest part of Paradise; that Paradise has a hundred degrees, the distance between each two degrees being like that between heaven and earth; and that al-Firdaws is the highest of them. The second hadith agrees with it in its description of the hundred degrees. The third agrees with it that al-Firdaws is the highest of them.

Since the Throne is above al-Firdaws, one may say: If that is so, this entails a height and elevation that cannot be known through astronomy. For calculation does not establish that the distance between the ninth celestial sphere and the first is a hundred times that between heaven and earth. According to them, the ninth sphere is directly adjacent to the eighth. This has thus shown that the Throne is above