interpretive distortion; His rising is intelligible, but its modality is unknown. He—majestic and exalted—is separate from His creation, and they are separate from Him: no indwelling, no mingling, no blending, and no physical contact, for He alone stands apart from His creatures, the One who has no need of them.

Likewise, Allah is All-Hearing, All-Seeing, All-Knowing, All-Aware. He speaks, is pleased, becomes angry, laughs, shows amazement, and will reveal Himself to His servants on the Day of Resurrection smiling. Every night He descends to the lowest heaven in whatever manner He wills and says: “Is there anyone calling upon Me so that I may answer him? Is there anyone seeking forgiveness so that I may forgive him? Is there anyone repenting so that I may accept his repentance?”—until dawn breaks. The Lord’s descent to the heaven is without asking how, without likening Him to anything, and without figurative reinterpretation. Whoever denies this descent, or interprets it away, is an innovating deviant, whereas all the select gnostics are unanimously upon this belief.”

[The statement of al-Fuḍayl ibn ʿIyāḍ]

[And the eminent shaykh, Abū Bakr Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Hārūn al-Khallāl, said …]