and others have stated:

The Imams (1) said: “The istiwāʾ is known, its modality is unknown, believing in it is obligatory, and asking about the ‘how’ is an innovation.”

Whoever claims that Allah needs a Throne (2) to bear Him, or that He is enclosed within a heaven that overshadows Him, or that He is confined inside any of His creatures, or that any direction among the directions of His created realms (3) encompasses Him, is mistaken and astray.

And whoever says, “There is no Lord upon the Throne and no Creator above the heavens; indeed, there (4) is nothing there but sheer nothingness and absolute negation,” is a denier who nullifies the Lord of all worlds, resembling Pharaoh, who said:

“And Pharaoh said, ‘O Haman, build for me a tower that I might reach the ways, (36) the ways of the heavens, so that I may look upon the god of Moses, for indeed I think him a liar.’” (5)

Rather, Ahl al-Sunnah and the people of hadith, and the predecessors of this Ummah, are unanimously agreed that He is above His heavens [upon His Throne] (6), distinct from His creation: nothing of the created order is within His Essence, and nothing of His Essence is within His creation. This is affirmed by the texts of the Quran and the Sunnah, by the consensus of the early generations and the Imams of the Sunnah; indeed, it is the creed of all believers, the first of them and the last.

Ahl al-Sunnah and the predecessors are also agreed that whoever interprets (istawā) to mean “conquered”—or adopts any other interpretation that negates (7) Allah’s being above His heavens (8)—is a misguided Jahmi.