He replied, “No.”

I said, “Why not, when Allah and His Messenger have commanded enjoining what is right and forbidding what is wrong, and that is a binding obligation?”

He answered, “That is true; however, the harm they cause outweighs the good they bring—spilling blood and making the unlawful lawful.”

He then spoke at length about fighting the Kharijites and other rebels until he said: Abū Ḥanīfah declared that whoever says, “I do not know whether my Lord is in the heaven or on the earth,” has fallen into unbelief, for Allah the Exalted says, “The Most Merciful rose over the Throne” [Tāhā 20:5], and His Throne is above the seven heavens.

I asked, “Suppose the person says: ‘He rose over the Throne,’ yet adds, ‘I do not know whether the Throne itself is in the heaven or on the earth’?”

He replied, “He is an unbeliever, because he has denied that Allah is in the heaven. Exalted is He in the highest heights, and He is invoked from above, not from below.”

In another wording I asked Abū Ḥanīfah about someone who says, “I do not know whether my Lord is in the heaven or on the earth.” He said, “He has disbelieved, for Allah the Exalted says, ‘The Most Merciful rose over the Throne’ [Tāhā 20:5], and His Throne is above the seven heavens.” He then added, “If the person merely says, ‘He rose over the Throne,’ yet does not know whether the Throne is on the earth or in the heaven…”