they are misguided people who nevertheless divide it into three hundred and sixty degrees, attributing to each degree an effect different from that of another, independently of any differences in what receives those effects. This is like someone taking a single body of water and attributing to one portion an effect different from that of another, irrespective of what receives those effects: one part produces heat, another cold, another happiness, and another misery. They themselves, and every rational person, know this to be false and misguided.
Since they have no basis for denying the existence of something else above the nine spheres, to assert categorically that what the messengers conveyed means that the Throne is the ninth sphere is to speculate about the unseen and speak without knowledge.
All of this assumes the existence of the nine spheres as commonly held by astronomers. The disagreements and inconsistencies concerning this, and the evidence offered for it, are beyond the scope of this discussion. We are speaking only on that assumption.
Furthermore, the spheres are all of the same kind in their shapes and in the way they encompass one another. The relation of the seventh to the sixth is like that of the sixth to the fifth. If there is a ninth sphere, its relation to the eighth is like that of the eighth to the seventh.
As for the Throne, the scriptural reports indicate that it is distinct from all other created things, and that its relation to some of them is unlike their relations to one another. Allah Most High says:
“Those who carry the Throne and those around it glorify their Lord with praise and believe in Him”—to the end of the verse [Ghāfir: 7].
And He, glorified be He, says:
“And eight will bear the Throne of your Lord above them that Day” [al-Hāqqah: 17].
He thus tells us that the Throne has bearers now and on the Day of Resurrection, and that its bearers and those around it glorify Him and seek forgiveness for the believers.
It is well known that any one of the spheres is sustained by the power of Allah Most High just as all the other spheres are sustained, with no difference