for the believers to believe their Lord’s statement that He rose over the Throne. They were forbidden to describe how He rose over it, because He had not told them how this was, nor had their eyes seen Him in this world so that they could describe Him on the basis of what they had seen. They were also forbidden to speak about Him without knowledge. Thus, they believed His account of rising over the Throne and left the knowledge of how He rose over it to Allah.

“But you, O Jahmī, must say that Allah is bounded and encompassed by places, since you claim that He is in places. For nothing can reasonably be conceived of as being in a place without that place encompassing it. As the Arabs say, ‘So-and-so is in the house,’ and ‘The water is in the well’: the house encompasses the man, and the well encompasses the water.

“An even more repugnant conclusion follows from your position, for you have said something more atrocious than what the Christians said. They said that Allah, Mighty and Majestic, was in Jesus, and Jesus had the body of a single human being; they thereby committed disbelief. They were told, ‘How great Allah is, when you have placed Him in Mary’s womb!’ Yet you say that He is everywhere: in the wombs of all women, in Jesus’ body, and in the bodies of all people. You must also say that He is inside dogs and pigs, since these are places, and you maintain that Allah is in every place. Exalted is Allah far above that!”

When the repugnance of his statement was exposed, he said:

“I say that Allah is in every place—not as one thing is in another, nor as one thing is upon another, nor as one thing is outside another, nor as something separate from another.”

He said:

“He should be told: ‘Your position rests on analogy and reason. Yet through analogy and reason you have demonstrated that you worship nothing. For if He were something situated within, analogy and reason would require that He be inside something or