as reported in the two Sahīh collections from the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, who said:

“When you ask Allah for Paradise, ask Him for Firdaws, for it is the highest and most central part of Paradise, and its roof is the Throne of the Most Merciful.”

Some of these matters are agreed upon by all people of reason. Those not known to all people of reason are known to those who affirm them. No person of reason has said that these things are beneath the earth and its inhabitants. Their knowledge of this is more evident than your knowledge of the sphericity of the celestial spheres—even supposing that the latter contradicted the former. How much more so, then, when it does not!

If created beings in the celestial spheres, the air, and on the earth can be above what is beneath them without thereby being beneath what is on the other side of the world, then it is all the more fitting that the Most High, the Highest—glory be to Him—should be above the world without thereby being beneath anything within it.

[The third argument]

It may be said: This argument must be based either on revelation or on reason.

It is known that it is not based on revelation. Were it so, the revealed texts indicating that Allah Most High is above would be more explicit, more numerous, and clearer, as no Muslim could fail to recognize.

If, however, it is based on reason, its premises must be established through reason. Yet he has stated nothing beyond his assertion:

(For if Allah were in a direction above, He would be below in relation to