—whether finite or infinite, corporeal or incorporeal—as we have set out their views in another place. (1)

Thus the Jahmiyyah (2) who deny that Allah possesses direction or spatial extension mean by this that there is no Lord above the Throne and no God above the heavens. By contrast, the Jahmiyyah who claim that He is present within all existing things thereby affirm for Him both direction and spatial extension. In my reply I have shown the falsity of the statements of both factions of the Jahmiyyah—the negators and the affirmers—for the former worship nothing at all, whereas the latter worship everything. I have mentioned these two categories (3) because, when the dialectical theologians habitually negate direction and spatial extension for Allah, these are precisely the notions they intend. If, however, they mean something else, the onus is upon them to make it clear, for the wording does not convey that meaning on its own, and no one has the right to test people with an ambiguous term he himself has coined without explaining what he means by it.

Fourthly, they have demanded that people believe in the denial of direction and spatial extension with respect to Allah. It is evident, however, that commanding someone to adopt a belief can only be either a matter of blind imitation (4) of the one issuing the command, or a consequence of proof.