which some claim to be rational demonstrations or revealed evidences. We have scrutinized them exhaustively and made it plain that they are sheer nonsense (1); so produce your proof, if you are truthful.

Had our aim here not been merely to draw attention to the main wellsprings of error in what they have made obligatory to believe, we would have expanded the discussion and shown its proper resolution in full. Instead, we have referred the reader to other written works—likewise composed by us in this very age (2). All praise is due to Allah, the Patron of all beneficence.

Twelfth Point:

The word “direction” (jiha), as used by those who employ it, must carry either a positive or a negative meaning. If it is understood positively, then denying (3) direction of Allah amounts to denying that Allah is within any existing thing. Yet there is no [thing] (4) in existence besides Allah except the created universe. Thus one of the two answers we mentioned earlier applies, namely, that the intention is that He is not (5) confined within the creatures nor contained inside manufactured entities. This is one of the sayings of the Jahmites, who maintain that He is not upon the Throne, and we have already refuted this explicitly in our discourse.

But if the term is meant negatively, the sense would be that Allah is not present where nothing exists besides Him—that is, above the universe—for to say that a being is “in” knowledge does not mean that