and nothing is above You; You are the Inmost, and nothing is nearer than You.”

For this reason, the position of the early generations and the leading scholars was that, even when He descends to the lowest heaven, He remains above the Throne. He is never beneath created beings, nor do they ever encompass Him. Rather, He is the Most High, the Highest: exalted in His nearness, near in His exaltedness. Accordingly, more than one scholar has reported the consensus of the early generations that Allah is not within the heavens.

Yet some people may say that He descends and the Throne is above Him. They also say that He is within heaven, and that created beings may encompass Him and be greater than Him. These people are ignorant and astray, contradicting both plain reason and authentic transmitted texts. Likewise, the deniers who say that He is neither within the world nor outside it are ignorant and astray, contradicting both plain reason and authentic transmitted texts. Thus, those who affirm divine indwelling and those who deny the divine attributes stand at opposite extremes.