even though “looking,” in the sense of waiting, is indeed used in His words: “Wait for us so that we may glean from your light” (Hadid 57:13) and in His words: “…so we shall wait to see what the envoys return with” (Naml 27:36).

A comparable stratagem is the remark of the Jahmi sophist: “When the anthropomorphist (mushabbih) says to you, ‘The All-Merciful rose over the Throne’ (Taha 20:4), reply to him, ‘The word Throne carries several (1) meanings, and istiwāʾ has five meanings; which of them is intended?’ The anthropomorphist will be baffled and unable to answer, and you will be rid of his trouble.”

To this ignorant, unjust, and deluded tempter we say: Woe to you! What wrong has the monotheist—whom you and your fellows brand an anthropomorphist—committed, when he has merely repeated exactly what Allah Himself has said? By Allah, even were he the anthropomorphist you claim, he would still be nearer to Allah and His Messenger than you, for he has not exceeded the wording of the revelation.

As for your assertion, “The Throne possesses seven meanings or thereabouts, and istiwāʾ has five meanings,” this is nothing but sophistry, a ruse aimed at the ignorant, and a manifest lie. The Throne of the All-Merciful upon which He rose admits of only one meaning. True, the word throne in the abstract can bear several senses, but the definite article here turns it into a specific entity: the Throne of the Lord—majestic is His glory—the seat of His sovereignty that the messengers unanimously affirmed (2) and that every community acknowledged, save those who opposed the messengers.

Your claim that “istiwāʾ has several meanings” is yet another deception; for istiwāʾ governed by the preposition ʿalā can bear but a single meaning, whereas istiwāʾ used without that preposition may indeed have multiple senses,