And the discerning among them know that their arguments drawn from scripture are unsound. They all acknowledge that such arguments cannot counter the Quran’s affirmation of Allah’s being on high and above, and similar attributes.

Thus, they have no basis from the Messenger, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, on which to rely in denying this. They rely only on what they consider rational arguments, and therefore need to explain why these should take precedence over scriptural evidence.

Since this is so, we shall show that rational evidence agrees with transmitted evidence rather than contradicting it. We shall also cite their own statements on this matter, thereby making the argument more compelling.

[Al-Rāzī’s discussion of direction and place]

They said the following, which sums up what al-Rāzī stated in al-Arba‘īn (The Forty). He said:

“He, the Most High, belongs to neither a direction nor a place.”

He said:

“Many opponents have claimed that it is self-evidently known that, of two existing things, one must either pervade the other, as with an accident and a substance, or be spatially separate from it, as with two substances.”