So, since the East and the West both belong to Allah, and because “For everyone there is a direction toward which he turns” ⦗al-Baqarah: 148⦘—His phrase “toward which he turns” meaning the direction he faces or orients himself—this is like His statement, “So wherever you turn, there is the Face of Allah” ⦗al-Baqarah: 115⦘, that is, wherever you face, there is the Face of Allah.

Some have said that the verse points to a divine attribute, and indeed it affirms that Allah possesses a Face and that wherever the servants turn, there is the Face of Allah. They, not He, are the ones who do the turning and the facing; it does not mean that He turns His Face to every location. To claim otherwise is to twist the wording of the Qur’an away from its intent and to slander the Muslims.

Whoever among the Muslims adopts that latter view must acknowledge its necessary corollary: that Allah encompasses the whole universe—as I have explained at length elsewhere.

The aim here, however, is to expose the misguidance of those who have introduced into their religion the innovations of disbelief, the Trinity, and union, as opposed to those who believe in Allah and His messengers and accept what the messengers have conveyed from Allah—blessed and exalted is He.

As for their expression “and a side,” no renowned scholar known to the Muslims, nor any well-known school among the Muslim sects, has ever affirmed for Allah a “side” analogous to the human side. This wording appears in the Qur’an only in His statement: “Lest any soul should say, ‘Alas for what I neglected in my duty toward Allah’ ” ⦗al-Zumar: 56⦘. Hence, the mere fact of annexation does not in itself require that what is annexed to Allah