between the presence of a thing in a place, the inherence of an accident in the body that bears it, the reflection of a face in a mirror, and the inscription of speech on the paper that contains it. Thus, were someone to ask, “Is the Throne in the heaven or on the earth?” the answer would be: “In the heaven,” even though the Throne is vastly larger than the heaven itself.

Accordingly, the verse, “Do you feel secure from the One who is in the heaven” (al-Mulk 67:16), may be understood in one of two ways:

1. “The heaven” (as-samāʾ) may mean “height” (al-ʿulū), for the word is sometimes used for sheer elevation, as in His saying, “and He sent down for you water from the heaven” (an-Naml 27:60). Rain actually descends from the clouds suspended between heaven and earth, not from the very vault of the sky. Hence, Allah’s being “in the heaven” would mean that He is in absolute exaltation, above all creation; there is no existent container that encompasses Him, for above the universe there is nothing but Allah Himself.

2. The preposition fī may carry the sense of ʿalā (“on/upon”), just as it does in “Travel through (fī) the land” (Āl ʿImrān 3:137), meaning “upon the land,” and in Pharaoh’s threat, “I will surely crucify you in (fī) the trunks of palm-trees” (Ṭā Hā 20:71), meaning “upon the trunks.” On this reading, “the One who is in the heaven” would mean “upon the heaven,” that is, above it; Allah is above the heavens and above everything.

Thus, the person who denies that Allah is truly “in the heaven” falls into the four pitfalls we listed:
• He likens what he imagines of Allah’s being in the heaven to a creature’s being inside a room, and the like.
• He strips the revelatory texts of their affirmation that Allah is exalted in the heaven, and then—